Nantasket Beach

{{Short description|Beach in Massachusetts}} {{Use mdy dates|date=August 2023}} {{Infobox protected area | name = Nantasket Beach Reservation | image = Nantasket beach tide pools.jpg | image_caption = Nantasket Beach in 2023 | image_alt = Beach | map = USA Massachusetts#USA | map_size = 280 | map_caption = Location in Massachusetts | relief = 1 | location = Hull, Massachusetts, United States | nearest_city = | coordinates = {{coord|42|17|30|N|70|52|28|W|display=inline,title}} | coords_ref = <ref name=gnis/> | area = {{convert|39|acre}} | area_ref = <ref name=2012acreagelist/> | elevation = {{convert|0|ft|m|abbr=on}}<ref name=gnis>{{cite gnis|613713|Nantasket Beach}}</ref> | established = | named_for = | administrator = Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation | visitation_num = | visitation_year = | visitation_ref = | website = {{Official website}} | module = }} '''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.<ref name=dcr/> The shore has fine, light gray sand and is one of the most highly rated beaches in Greater Boston.<ref name="TimeOut">{{cite news | title = 10 best beaches near Boston | work = TimeOut Magazine | author = Cheryl Fenton| date = June 13, 2023 | url = https://www.timeout.com/boston/things-to-do/best-boston-beaches | access-date = October 11, 2023 }}</ref> 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, picturesque 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.<ref name="WickedLocal">{{cite news | title = Hull beach committee asks public to make way for piping plovers | work = Wicked Local | date = April 23, 2015 | url = https://www.wickedlocal.com/story/archive/2015/04/23/hull-beach-committee-asks-public/34706980007/ | access-date = October 11, 2023 }}</ref><ref name="BostonGlobePlover">{{cite news | title = Hull beach committee asks public to make way for piping plovers | work = Wicked Local | author = Sarah Hu | date = July 9, 2019 | url = https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2019/07/02/endangered-piping-plovers-hatch-boston-for-first-time-decades/QrlnnjA0ytY5pFdhAaVkTN/story.html | access-date = October 11, 2023 }}</ref>

==Name== The name "Nantasket" is derived from Wampanoag and means "low-tide place"<ref>{{cite book |title=Trolley trips |date=1931 |publisher=Boston Elevated Railway Company |location=Boston, Massachusetts |page=5 |url=https://archive.org/details/trolleytrips00bost/page/5/mode/1up |access-date=2 December 2022}}</ref> 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== thumb|right|300px|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.<ref name=JFKLibrary>{{cite web |url=https://www.jfklibrary.org/asset-viewer/archives/KFC/003/KFC-003-004 |title=NANTASKET, JOSEPH P. KENNEDY, MRS. JOSEPH P. KENNEDY, JOSEPH P. KENNEDY, JR., JOHN F. KENNEDY, PATRICK J. KENNEDY, JOHN F. FITZGERALD, CA. 1915-1917 |publisher=John F. Kennedy Presidential Library |date=June 1917 |access-date=October 12, 2023}}</ref><ref name=JFKLibrary1>{{cite web |url=https://www.jfklibrary.org/asset-viewer/archives/KFC/003/KFC-003-016 |title=NANTASKET, JOHN F. KENNEDY, 1917 |publisher=John F. Kennedy Presidential Library |date=June 1917 |access-date=October 12, 2023}}</ref> 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".<ref>The Heart of Emerson's Journals, edited by Bliss Perry, Dover Books, 1958</ref><ref name=JFKLibrary2>{{cite web |url=https://www.jfklibrary.org/asset-viewer/archives/KFC/003/KFC-003-004 |title=NANTASKET, JOHN F. FITZGERALD, CA. 1915-1917 |publisher=John F. Kennedy Presidential Library |date=June 1917 |access-date=October 12, 2023}}</ref><ref name=MassGov>{{cite web |url=https://www.mass.gov/doc/wayfinding-town-of-hull/download |title=TOWN OF HULL, COMMUNITY BRANDING & WAYFINDING PROJECT FINAL REPORT SEPTEMBER 2018 |publisher=Commonwealth of Massachusetts |date=September 2018 |access-date=October 12, 2023}}</ref> 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.<ref name=Lincoln>{{cite web |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0AUXAAAAYAAJ&q=Sketch+of+Nantasket+:+(now+called+Hull,)+in+the+county+of+Plymouth |title=Sketch of Nantasket : (now called Hull,) in the county of Plymouth |publisher=Gazette press (Hingham [Mass.]) |date=1830 |author=Solomon Lincoln |access-date=October 12, 2023}}</ref> 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.<ref name=Lincoln /> 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.<ref name=MassGov /> 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.

==References== {{Reflist|refs= <ref name=2012acreagelist>{{cite web |url=https://www.mass.gov/doc/final-landscape-designations-list/download |title=2012 Acreage Listing |publisher=Department of Conservation and Recreation |date=April 2012 |access-date=May 23, 2025}}</ref>

<ref name=dcr>{{cite web|url=https://www.mass.gov/locations/nantasket-beach-reservation |title=Nantasket Beach Reservation |date=2017-07-17 |publisher=Department of Conservation and Recreation |access-date=May 23, 2025}}</ref> }}

==External links== {{Commons category|Nantasket Beach}} *[https://www.mass.gov/locations/nantasket-beach-reservation Nantasket Beach Reservation] Department of Conservation and Recreation

Category:Landforms of Plymouth County, Massachusetts Category:Parks in Plymouth County, Massachusetts Category:Beaches of Massachusetts Category:Hull, Massachusetts Category:State parks of Massachusetts