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Back in the 1950's there was a private beach in Cumberland, RI on Mendon Rd. It was called Moody's Beach. The water was the Blackstone River. Does anyone remember this beach? My daughter lives on Marshall Ave. and when we visited her from South Carolina my wife and I was wondering just about where the old beach would have been. The nearest I could figure was somewhere around Bucci's Autobody, any ideas?
That is a blast from the past 4 sure. I'm not sure if Moody's was water from the Blackstone River or not, we were always told it was a man made "pond" and a pretty crappy one at that. The Blackstone River ran further up Mendon Rd. by the old mills and the little bridge, near the drive in which used to get flooded often; and the railroad tracks.
You had to be desperate to go to Moody's. I grew up in Darlington, and can remember my mother and my siblings being so desperately hot on some summer days, and not being able to afford to get to the ocean, that we would go sometimes to Moody's and if realllly desperate -- to Dunnell's Pond over near Prospect Heights. Looking back now, I can't believe it, but if I think about it I can still feel that oppressive heat living on a 2nd floor in Darlington. Can't remember us kids getting sick from it. But hey, we were kids, and water was water. You had to be "rich" to have air conditioning. I ended up living in Meadowcrest for several years after we bought a new home in there, just off Marshall Av., and then later on in Arnold Mills. When I was younger we also went to Spring Lake in Burrillville that was a real treat, the water was nice and the beach was clean. But as I recall you had to pay to get in, and sometimes I believe we didn't have a ride. Not many had 2nd cars then, at least we didn't. We also went to a lake in Wrentham, Lake Pearl if you remember..... there is a dance hall on the lake there now I believe.
I believe they filled in Moody's somewhere in the mid to later 60's because it "disappeared". After that, it became the Lonsdale Dump. Imagine. Those may have been the days when there were no home inspections and there were no seller's disclosures because homes were popping up all over the place, and up above on the Lincoln side off Grove St. Some of those homes in that "plat" have/had backyards overlooking the dump and the old mills down there !
Now it's all been cleaned up, and maybe aside from a few tenements still on Mendon Road, and an old Chinese restaurant that may have been the Panda or whatever, behind there now and along Mendon Road are some high dollar condos. Yep, built right on or close to a filled in pond and a dump.
Yes, its funny how things change. Growing up in Jamestown in the late 70's early 80's, we lived near a small quarry. Each weekend in the summer cars would line the street, many with MA plates, and people and families would hang out at the quarry for the day, along with the snapping turtles, occasional harmless water snake, submerged cars, shopping carts, bicycles, and who knows what else. If you dove off the cliffs and went too deep, legend had it you might get tangled in some fencing. Most Saturday nights in the summer, things would get wild and the police would show up. The burnouts would take their party to the cliff, blaring Lynnard Skynard from their 'sex vans'. Then the land around the place was sub-divided and the new owners cracked down on the swimming and partying. Every now and then someone will still stop by, usually with MA plates, and say: "we used to drive down here from Fall River, I can't believe we used to swim in this". Maybe they were desperate.
A young man recently drowned, last week I believe, in the Lime Rock Quarry in Lincoln. My mother and father and their generation used to swim in there; but they put the fear of God into kids and we never even would walk on that side of the road! Many kids got "stuck" popping up from a dive under the shelf that rings that quarry. They say it is bottomless; as such, it was extremely cold in the depths, shockingly cold -- and many kids got stuck also in the wires, trash etc. as you mention were in the Jamestown quarry also. Dangerous stuff.
Another topic for more threads: Bobby's Roll-a-Way in Pawtucket. Anyone remember roller skating there? My mother used to say we'd get "consumption" from the dust.
Back in the 1950's there was a private beach in Cumberland, RI on Mendon Rd. It was called Moody's Beach. The water was the Blackstone River. Does anyone remember this beach? My daughter lives on Marshall Ave. and when we visited her from South Carolina my wife and I was wondering just about where the old beach would have been. The nearest I could figure was somewhere around Bucci's Autobody, any ideas?
at the end of lenox st the water pumping station is on the side of where the beach was. i grew up off marshall my friend lived in the last house on the left on lenox st in the sixties it still looked like a beach but being about 8 to ten years of age i new better than put my feet in the water yuk
if you look on google maps at the end of lenox st you see two ponds the small one was moody`s beach the other is new pond
I actually live at the end of Dixon St, located on the site of old Moody's beach. It’s certainly overgrown now and water isn't always the cleanest. That said, I've come across a few old relics whilst walking around the pond which is really cool. Apparently there are no archived photos or maps of the beach at town hall or library so if anyone has any old photos of what the beach looked like back in the 50’s-60’s; would love to see them.
I actually live at the end of Dixon St, located on the site of old Moody's beach. It’s certainly overgrown now and water isn't always the cleanest. That said, I've come across a few old relics whilst walking around the pond which is really cool. Apparently there are no archived photos or maps of the beach at town hall or library so if anyone has any old photos of what the beach looked like back in the 50’s-60’s; would love to see them.
That would be fun, hope we find some. If the "Pawtucket Times" is still active, they may have some. Or the Pawtucket library. I lived in Meadowcrest until the mid 70's, but believe that Moody's was gone by the mid 60's, not sure. There was also that awful man made pond over on Prospect St. (Dunnell's Pond?) I think it was, served mostly the folks from Prospect Heights, and that was a good thing, they were the very poor people and elderly who unfortunately could not get to a beach to cool off.
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