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BLOCK ISLAND SUMMER TIMES August 2014
www.blockislandtimes.com
Clockwise from top: 1957 vintage lifeguards from left to right — Charlie O’Brien, Dick Kiley, Frank Whalen, and Vin McAloon (photo courtesy of Lulu Kiley); Judy Gray on playground swing 1959 (photo courtesy Sarah Gray); beach in 1954 (courtesy State of Rhode Island); the state beach playground in the 1950s (photo courtesy of Carol Lynch Brown).
Continued from previous page as the contract soon was transferred to a Mr. Blakely. A second Golden Age for the bathing beach began in the early 1950s. At the start of that decade the wheels were turning for the new pavilion, a modern structure to complement the airport construction which had marked a mid-century looking forward. There was hope that the postwar prosperity which had been so elusive might yet touch Block Island. In 1953 the General Assembly voted “The Town Council of the Town of New Shoreham is hereby authorized and empowered to acquire by eminent domain... for the purpose of developing recreational facilities thereon for public use the title in fee simple in and to that certain land known as Crescent Beach...” Contained in the act was a provision that the Town would gift to the State the central portion of that land. The Town Council held a special session in May of that year. State Senator William Lewis reported at length on a meeting he and State Representative Samuel Mott had attended in Providence with various officials regarding a proposed bathing beach. He explained that the State was requesting an area almost 500 feet longer than that of its largest facility, Scarborough in Narragansett, as they wanted “protection of their beach in order to eliminate undesirable situations which might arise close by.” There would be no fencing off
of any area, “as was customary on the mainland,” nor would there be any restriction on crossing the beach; the only charge would be for use of the facilities. An oft-repeated refrain at that council meeting was that people were interested in what was best for the town. While brochures aimed at visitors would continue to list swimming on a par with golf and bicycling — and in one even hunting — there seemed to be a greater understanding that Crescent Beach, long and sandy and open and free, was an asset to be promoted. Largely a formality to acquire title to the land, the condemnation was complicated by two extant leases which needed to be extinguished prior to the State accepting ownership. The later was for the soon-to-be-former bathing beach, held by Mr. Blakely, and the older, the Black Sand Extraction lease, dated from 1868. The Town was required to settle them, it appears, to prove they really wanted the new beach house. The record, written by those who were supportive of the new facility, in 1953 indicated the old structures were in poor condition, by one account, uninsurable, by another, run more as a hot dog stand with changing rooms that had not been open for “three years.” As the new bathing beach progressed, provisions of the 1927 contract regarding the removal of buildings on the old site were put into play. Adrian Sprague headed a crew that completely dismantled them. He used windows and the wooden shingles for the house he and his wife were build-
ing; lumber and various pieces were incorporated in other homes around the island. Ground was broken for the new facility, up the road from the old, in January of 1954; it opened to great fanfare in June of that same year. The building was simple, low and long, with men’s and women’s changing rooms on either side of an open lobby. From Corn Neck Road one could see the counter and the glass booth where the lady who “took the money” for rentals sat. Constructed of redwood, the structure gleamed that first summer, captured in photographs looking like the “Pride of All Rhode Island,” as it was called in a 1956 epic poem by Fran Reed. The parking lot was vast and paved – such as things were paved on Block Island in 1954, with oil and sand, a rough macadam surface. The shield of the State of Rhode Island hung on either side of the front of the building, blue and gold emblems the appearance of which marked the start and end of every season. Picnic tables climbed the dunes and a boardwalk extended from the stairs over the sand. A seasonal facility, it nonetheless offered employment for a manager, lifeguards, attendants, even a night watchman and the requisite concession. There were traffic attendants, of sorts, at the start, but longtime lifeguard Vin McAloon says the State knew it had a loss leader on its hands from the first year. It quickly became apparent there was no way parking fees, a major revenue stream for other state beaches, would be accepted. The hotels in the 1890s adver-
tised conveyances to the bathing beach. Decades later announcements came over the loud speakers on the building, gently reminding day-trippers they had to pack up and get back to the boat; “the Spring House [or other hotel] bus is in the parking lot” is well remembered. There was a playground attendant because there was a playground with a big swing set and slide, remembered for being exceedingly hot in the summer sun, a merry-go-round, a sort of May-pole with a single bench seat encircling it, a runand-jump-on-it affair, and a set of monkey bars. When asked whatever he was watching for, one of the early nocturnal sentries, Willis Dodge, remarked “it was quite an interesting place at night sometimes” and added that the equipment was a big attraction, especially “when the bars closed.” Water was a problem from the onset; a well driven onsite went salt and a line had to be run from the State garage at Twin Maples. Hurricane Carol roared through that first summer, ravaging the northern end of the parking lot. The space was not needed and it was never repaired, simply left until the rest of the macadam wore out as well. The building that virtually glowed to very young eyes was painted State Beach Green, which we guessed was purchased by the tanker truck load. Picnic tables were green, trash barrels were green, an early manager’s car was green . . . Everyone talked of the spaces between the floorboards of the new buildContinued on next page