White Horse Beach, Massachusetts

White Horse Beach is a village of Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States. It consists of 560 feet of public beach in the White Horse Beach, Massachusetts section of Plymouth and is located on Cape Cod Bay, south of Priscilla Beach. Much of the southern end of the beach, which is also known as Taylor Avenue Beach, south of the outflow of Bartlett Pond, either has cottages on it or has a fenced off conservation area to protect the dunes and fragile plant life.

At the north end of the beach is a rock sticking out of the water with an American flag painted on. According to local lore, this act of patriotism was performed to cover a Nazi swastika painted on the rock. In the summer of 1941 local teenagers painted the first flag and went on to join the armed forces after Pearl Harbor was bombed in December 1941. The harsh winter storms washed the flag thin so the swastika showed through. The next Fourth of July the tradition of re-painting the flag was born. Ed Fitzgerald, a White Horse resident, was part of that group. When Ed was of age he also joined the military service and left the tradition to his cousins, the Bradley boys of Priscilla Beach. For years they maintained the flag each Fourth of July until 1985 when family home was sold.

There is a small business district just beyond the north end of the beach. It has a general store and a Post Office. Its ZIP code is 02381. Residents and businesses in this village that are non-Post Office box holders use Plymouth's ZIP code of 02360. Further inland are St. Catherine's Church (which has now been closed, razed, the property has been planted with grass and trees and serves as a small park.) White Horse Cemetery, which dates back to the early 18th century. The Post Office was built in the former White Horse Bowling Alley that included pool tables, and pinball machines. Pin setting was done manually by "Pin Spotters" who had to move fast to keep up with the Bowlers. Two hotels were located on White Horse Beach, the Mayflower and the White Horse Hotel. The Mayflower has since burned and the area developed into Condos. White Horse Hotel was torn down in the sixties to make way for a parking lot.

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