Carson Beach, South Boston facts for kids
Carson Beach is a public beach in South Boston, Massachusetts. It has also been known as L Street Beach. It is maintained by the state's Department of Conservation and Recreation. The beach is a part of a three-mile segment of parks along the South Boston shoreline. The closest subway stop is the JFK/UMass station on the Red Line, approximately a half-mile away. In the mid-1990s, the beach's water quality was deemed unsafe due to sewage matter and other biological debris, and the beach had to be shut down. As of 2019[update], the water is usually approved for swimming. Additionally, the bathhouse was recently renovated.
Bathhouse
Carson Beach bathhouse was built in 1925 to serve local residents as a changing room and field house. The bathhouse served the local community through the 1950s and 60s. As the 70s came, an increasing amount of beach goers were using their newly purchased cars to explore beaches as far as Maine and Cape Cod. The bathhouse that served that local community became increasingly run down and unkept.
On July 26, 1994, Massachusetts governor Bill Weld and Boston mayor Thomas Menino along with representatives from the Massachusetts held a joint press conference announcing the plan to renovate a large number of the Boston Harbor beaches and called it "Back to the Beaches." The group announced plans for $6,823,500 to be spent renovating the bathhouse and cleaning up the beach area. The new bathhouse had to be moved back from the sand dunes closer to Day boulevard. It was completed in 1998 and named after Edward J. McCormack Jr. who is a native of South Boston and served as the Massachusetts Attorney General from 1959–1963. The new bathhouse includes three pavilion, food and recreation stands and men's and women's bathrooms.
Images for kids
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Racial conflict during the summer of 1977. The picture shows Columbia Point in the background, a public housing project. Police separate whites from blacks at the beach.
