White Horse Beach - North and South Rivers Watershed Association

205 Taylor Ave, Plymouth, MA 02360, USA

https://plymouthma.myrec.com/info/facilities/details.aspx?FacilityID=11298

Owned By: Town of Plymouth

Directions

A beautiful ocean beach in the village of Manomet. Limited public access in the summer. Also known as Taylor Avenue Beach. Large sections of the beach and dunes are fenced off for conservation.

You can sign up for water quality notifications for Plymouth’s public beaches and swimming ponds in the Public Health section of their website.

Features

Beach wheel chairs available. To reserve a beach chair, contact the Beach Director # 508-665-3164. The beach director, Sunday-Saturday 8:30a-5:00p.

This land is within the region of the Wampanoag tribe, who in earlier times, maintained a fishing weir at the mouth of Bartlett’s Pond, nearby. Its outlet to the sea is sometimes known as Herring Brook. The name Manomet has been interpreted to mean “bearing of a burden,” possibly referring to the baskets used by the Wampanoag on trails between their settlements at Patuxet (Plymouth) and Cape Cod. Learn more about the Herring Pond Wampanoag and the Mashpee Wampanoag via their websites.

The history below was gleaned from interpretive signage at St. Catherine’s Chapel Park.

European settlement of what was then known as the Manomet Ponds began as early as 1639. From then until about 1880, the area was home to a sparse network of farms and fishermen’s homes. Summer visitors began building cottages on Manomet Point in the 1850s, coming to the area to enjoy extended vacations on the shore. Lodging houses, inns and shops soon followed. Shooting and fishing were popular pastimes. In 1899, trolley service became available, making the area much more accessible. Trolleys continued to run until 1928. There was a trolley station at the intersection of White Horse Beach Road and Rocky Hill Road, just south of where St. Catherine’s Chapel Park stands today.

White Horse Road was laid out in 1883, and paved in 1922. Taylor Road was constructed between 1912 and 1925, and then extended to Manomet Point Road in 1935. While today there are no businesses along Taylor Road, from the 1920’s to the 1990’s there were numerous commercial enterprises there, including the Whip-Po-Will Lodge, White Horse Playland, and later the Sandpiper Inn and White Sands.

In 1901, the Coast Guard established a station at Manomet Point, replacing the the 1874 US Life Saving Service station #5.

Trail Description

No trails, but the beach is a lovely place to walk.

Habitats and Wildlife

White Horse Beach is located directly on the Atlantic Ocean, on Cape Cod Bay. The entrance trail is flanked with sand dunes filled with bayberry, rosa rugosa, and beach grasses, as well as some cedar.