Nantasket Beach

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Nantasket Beach Reservation
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Nantasket Beach in 2023
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Location in Massachusetts
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Nantasket Beach (the United States)
Location Hull, Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States
Coordinates 42°17′30″N70°52′28″W / 42.29167°N 70.87444°W / 42.29167; -70.87444 [1]
Area39 acres (16 ha) [2]
Elevation0 ft (0 m) [1]
EstablishedUnspecified
Operator Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation
Website Nantasket Beach Reservation

Nantasket Beach is a beach in the town of Hull, Massachusetts. It is part of the Nantasket Beach Reservation, administered by the state Department of Conservation and Recreation. [3] The shore has fine, light gray sand and is one of the most highly rated beaches in Greater Boston. [4] Due to its gentle slope, at low tide, the beach extends several hundred yards in width, forming tide pools that have become a well known, pictoresque characteristic of the site, renowned for their reflections of the sunsets and sunrises. The northern part of the beach is private, administered by the Town of Hull, and does not allow visitors to park except as guests of residents. The beach is a habitat for federally protected species, including the piping plover, least tern, and occasionally harbor seals. [5] [6]

Contents

Name

The name "Nantasket" is derived from Wampanoag and means "low-tide place" [7] or "where tides meet", referring to the fact that the site was originally a tidal island connected to the mainland by a sandbar that would emerge only at low tide. Nantasket was settled not long after Plymouth Colony and before Massachusetts Bay. Roger Conant was in the area after leaving the Plymouth Colony and before going to Cape Ann in 1625. Until Hull was incorporated in 1644, English settlers referred to the whole local region as "Nantasket Peninsula".

History

Nantasket Beach circa 1910 General View, Nantasket Beach, MA.jpg
Nantasket Beach circa 1910

Nantasket has been the summer refuge of many eminent Americans, such as U.S. President John F. Kennedy, his brother Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. and his wife Rose Kennedy. [8] [9] Others include U.S. President Calvin Coolidge, former mayor of Boston John F. Fitzgerald, Irish-American poet John Boyle O'Reilly, who had a house on the peninsula, and Ralph Waldo Emerson, who spent time at Nantasket in July 1841, reflecting on "the beauty of the good" and "the book of flesh and blood". [10] [11] [12] The peninsula was forested until at least 1624, when the first European settlers are known to have begun agriculture on what was then a tidal island, with a land bridge connecting what is today Nantasket Beach to the mainland. [13] Plymouth colonists kept a structure in the area to serve as storehouse for trading with the Massachusett tribe, implying that Indigenous people used the site routinely. [13] Settlements grew in subsequent years, supporting a fishing community as well as limited farming. In 1825, Paul Warrick established "The Sportsman Hotel" on Nantasket Avenue. Later, more hotels were built and steamboats made three trips a day between Nantasket Beach and Boston in the 1840s. By 1888, the Old Colony Railroad linked Boston to Hull in the nation's first electrical railroad. [12] In 1905, an amusement area called Paragon Park was built adjacent to the beach. A carousel built by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company (PTC #85) in 1928 was included. This was closed in 1984.

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The Kennedy family is an American political family that has long been prominent in American politics, public service, entertainment, and business. In 1884, 35 years after the family's arrival from County Wexford, Ireland, Patrick Joseph "P. J." Kennedy became the first Kennedy elected to public office, serving in the Massachusetts state legislature until 1895. At least one Kennedy family member served in federal elective office from 1947, when P. J. Kennedy's grandson John F. Kennedy became a member of Congress from Massachusetts, until 2011, when Patrick J. Kennedy II retired as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Rhode Island.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plymouth County, Massachusetts</span> County in Massachusetts, United States

Plymouth County is a county in the U.S. state of Massachusetts, south of Boston. As of the 2020 census, the population was 530,819. Its county seats are Plymouth and Brockton. In 1685, the county was created by the Plymouth General Court, the legislature of Plymouth Colony, predating its annexation by the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hull, Massachusetts</span> Town in Massachusetts, United States

Hull is a town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States, located on a peninsula at the southern edge of Boston Harbor. Its population was 10,072 at the 2020 census. Hull is the smallest town by land area in Plymouth County and the eleventh smallest in the state. However, its population density is nearly four times that of Massachusetts as a whole.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piping plover</span> Species of bird

The piping plover is a small sand-colored, sparrow-sized shorebird that nests and feeds along coastal sand and gravel beaches in North America. The adult has yellow-orange-red legs, a black band across the forehead from eye to eye, and a black stripe running along the breast line. This chest band is usually thicker in males during the breeding season, and it is the only reliable way to tell the sexes apart. The bird is difficult to see when it is standing still, as it blends well with open, sandy beach habitats. It typically runs in short, quick spurts and then stops.

The Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area is a national recreation area situated among the islands of Boston Harbor of Boston, Massachusetts. The area is made up of a collection of islands, together with a former island and a peninsula, many of which are open for public recreation and some of which are very small and best suited for wildlife. The area is run by the Boston Harbor Islands Partnership. It includes the Boston Harbor Islands State Park, managed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Twenty-one of the 34 islands in the area are also included in the Boston Harbor Islands Archeological District.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Department of Conservation and Recreation</span> State agency of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts

The Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) is a state agency of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States, situated in the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. It is best known for its parks and parkways. The DCR's mission is "To protect, promote and enhance our common wealth of natural, cultural and recreational resources for the well-being of all." The agency is the largest landowner in Massachusetts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Revere Beach</span> Public beach in Revere, Massachusetts, U.S.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Duxbury Beach</span> Beach in Massachusetts, United States

Duxbury Beach is a barrier beach in the town of Duxbury, Massachusetts. It is six miles long and is accessed by the Powder Point Bridge from Duxbury, or Gurnet Road from Marshfield. Since 1975, approximately 4.5 miles of the beach is owned by Duxbury Beach Reservation, Inc, which annually leases a substantial portion of the beach—excepting the Duxbury Beach Park area—to the town of Duxbury. Under this arrangement, the town issues beach vehicle permits, provides police protection, and provides conservation officers to patrol the beach in all seasons of the year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crane Beach</span> Conservation and recreation property in Ipswich, Massachusetts

Crane Beach is a 1,234-acre (4.99 km2) conservation and recreation property located in Ipswich, Massachusetts, immediately north of Cape Ann. It consists of a four-mile-long (6 km) sandy beachfront, dunes, and a maritime pitch pine forest. Five and a half miles of hiking trails through the dunes and forest are accessible from the beachfront.

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Hull Shore Drive and Nantasket Avenue are a historic coastal parkway in Hull, Massachusetts. Nantasket Avenue, designated as part of Route 228, is the main road through the town of Hull. Hull Shore Drive is a short segment of the road, near the Nantasket Beach Reservation at the southern end of the Hull peninsula. A 1.25-mile (2.01 km) section of the roads was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rose Kennedy</span> American philanthropist, mother of John F. Kennedy

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The Massachusetts Historic Curatorship Program is a leasing program under the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) that promotes private investment in historic, public properties that are currently empty and in various states of disrepair. Through the Program, a curator is selected to restore and maintain one of the Program's properties in a “work for credit” exchange system. A curator is chosen through an open application process that can be found on the DCR's website. Average lease terms range from twenty to thirty years. As of 2021, twenty-two of the Program's properties were under agreement. The Program includes residential, commercial and institutional properties that are significant to the history of the Commonwealth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Myles Standish Monument State Reservation</span>

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Pemberton Point is a peninsula in Hull, Massachusetts. It is located at the tip of the Nantasket Peninsula, in Boston Harbor.

References

  1. 1 2 "Nantasket Beach". Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
  2. "2012 Acreage Listing" (PDF). Department of Conservation and Recreation. April 2012. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 7, 2017. Retrieved January 19, 2014.
  3. "Nantasket Beach Reservation". MassParks. Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. Retrieved August 22, 2013.
  4. Cheryl Fenton (June 13, 2023). "10 best beaches near Boston". TimeOut Magazine. Retrieved October 11, 2023.
  5. "Hull beach committee asks public to make way for piping plovers". Wicked Local. April 23, 2015. Retrieved October 11, 2023.
  6. Sarah Hu (July 9, 2019). "Hull beach committee asks public to make way for piping plovers". Wicked Local. Retrieved October 11, 2023.
  7. Trolley trips. Boston, Massachusetts: Boston Elevated Railway Company. 1931. p. 5. Retrieved December 2, 2022.
  8. "NANTASKET, JOSEPH P. KENNEDY, MRS. JOSEPH P. KENNEDY, JOSEPH P. KENNEDY, JR., JOHN F. KENNEDY, PATRICK J. KENNEDY, JOHN F. FITZGERALD, CA. 1915-1917". John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. June 1917. Retrieved October 12, 2023.
  9. "NANTASKET, JOHN F. KENNEDY, 1917". John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. June 1917. Retrieved October 12, 2023.
  10. The Heart of Emerson's Journals, edited by Bliss Perry, Dover Books, 1958
  11. "NANTASKET, JOHN F. FITZGERALD, CA. 1915-1917". John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. June 1917. Retrieved October 12, 2023.
  12. 1 2 "TOWN OF HULL, COMMUNITY BRANDING & WAYFINDING PROJECT FINAL REPORT SEPTEMBER 2018". Commonwealth of Massachusetts. September 2018. Retrieved October 12, 2023.
  13. 1 2 Solomon Lincoln (1830). "Sketch of Nantasket : (now called Hull,) in the county of Plymouth". Gazette press (Hingham [Mass.]). Retrieved October 12, 2023.