Neighbor News
Dewey Beach
Looking back to when there was a beach and a bathhouse on the Mystic River -- and the city paid for both.
When the heat of the summer surged back in the day, Charlestown residents could retreat to a small swimming area on the Mystic River known as Dewey Beach.
As early as the 1860s, local people were using the spot for bathing. Around 1898 it got a bit bigger when a dredging company that was shoveling out the Mystic got permission to drop its dug-up materials on the flats there. These flats were then filled and covered with sand and a triangular beach was created. In 1901, the City Council awarded $50,000 to build a frame bathhouse; later a brick bathhouse was built.
My mother swam at Dewey Beach in the 1930s. She remembers going under a railway bridge to get to the beach. As part of a competitive swim team, she had swim competitions with East Boston and Carson Beach in South Boston. Dinny Swanson and Jim Mullen were the Dewey Beach swim coaches. My mom remembers, "Dinny brought in white sand on a truck, to cover the sand already there."
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In 1957, American Sugar Refinery bought the beach, which was becoming increasingly more polluted with oil from barges coming through the river. American Sugar filled in the rest of the flats and built a refinery.
- Where was Dewey Beach?
On the Mystic River flats across from Charlestown Heights ( Doherty Playground) .
- When was it created?
People had swum in this spot since the 1860s, but a beach wasn't created until 1898. Sanborn Insurance maps of the early 1900s show a bathhouse, but no beach name. The 1922 Sanborn map has the name Dewey Beach.
- Who built it?
In the early 1900s, Boston City Council voted to give $50,000 to build a bathhouse and showers.
- What was it created for?
Some City Council members wanted to be sure that residents of the town could find a way to survive the ‘sweltering heat’ of summer.
- Why was it built?
There was no other swimming place for residents. There was originally to be a beach built near the Ryan Playground at the Neck but this never materialized.
- How was it built?
The beach was created with materials dredged from the Mystic and Malden Rivers, and later with trucked-in sand.
Information for this article was compiled from various research materials, including Engineering Review, July 1908; ‘Gaining Ground’ by Nancy Seasholes and interview.