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THE ANNAPOLIS ROADS BEACH

The Annapolis Roads beach was a special place for me and many other kids in the 60's and 70's.
Hopefully these words and pictures will help spur some good memories for you.

I'm starting this page with a recently solved mystery that had plagued me for decades. Read on, McDuff.

When I was a kid in the mid to late 1960’s, we played at the beach all the time.
From the top of the hill down to the actual beach there was about 30-50 feet of woods.
In the woods, at about the location of the current L’Altura house we found building debris (old doors and windows),
piles of old liquor bottles, and a concrete well about 4 feet across and 15-20 feet deep (see photo below)

We were curious what had been there, but never knew exacty what it was.
We heard it was the old Annapolis Roads Country Club, but were never sure.
Now I know and can share this recenlty-learned information with you. It was THE ANNAPOLIS ROADS BEACH CLUB.

I know very little about the beach club, whether it was public
or private, what type of activities occurred.
It was built in 1928 and burned to the ground on June 8, 1953

If anyone has ANY more information to share about the Beach Club,
please WRITE ME (click here).


This is
THE ANNAPOLIS ROADS BEACH CLUB
circa 1948.



I found this photo on the web somewhere.
It is credited to Bob Kames.


Here is some history of The Annapolis Roads Beach Club from The Annapolis Roads web site:
This history, written by James Gibb, is quite interesting.
Read his entire article HERE

"The Beach Club was originally planned to be a hotel, the Belmont Hotel.
For some reason during the transition from planning on paper to breaking ground the hotel became a beach club.

The hotel was to be placed just back from the bluff on the site of what is now L'Altura at the intersection of Carrollton and Ogleton Roads,
facing south of east 'to avoid a too direct view of the tall towers of the government wireless station,' Gallagher wrote to Mrs. Armstrong on March 1, 1926,
'which, while interesting, rather hurts than otherwise the natural scene.'

I have been unable to determine who designed the 'wedding cake' beach clubhouse.
Originally intended to be the Belmont Hotel, the focus of Mrs. Armstrong's resort, this large, white, multi-tiered frame building
housed a restaurant, snack bar, and a variety of other public spaces.
It stood as a landmark on the shore of the Bay for a quarter century before succumbing to
a spectacular blaze on June 8, 1953
(see below). Fragments of tile from the shaded terrace still wash up on the beach."


Here is a tile I took as a souvenir about 198o.
see below for a 1988 photo of what remained of the tiled deck.
The tiles were white and red and black

If anyone has any other information , or photos, to share about the Beach Club,
or ANYTHING ELSE about vintage Annapolis Roads
please WRITE ME (click here).

.

I got this photo from the Maryland State Archives on Rowe Blvd.
They charge $35 for a copy of a photo, so I just laid the picture on a table and snapped one of my own.
I asked someone at the archive if I could do that. They said "sure, people do it all the time."

From the archive:
MSA SC 2140-1-390
Artist/Author: Martin, Walter
Dates: 1945-1950
Description: Annapolis Roads Beach and Clubhouse
Medium: 8" x 10" black and white photograph
Restrictions: No restrictions on use. NOTE: Not all images have prints available.
Storage Location: 33/02/02/25






Here is another photo I found online.
ce

The yellow arrow points to the tile deck.
It looks like it is under a roof. You can see people in the building.

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THE LOCATION OF THE BEACH CLUB


The Beach Club was approximately where L'Altura is currently situated, except
it was on the hill that led down to the beach.
There was a tile deck on the beach. (see photos below)

The red arrow shows the approximate location of the club.
The yellow arrow shows the approximate location of the dump.








THE FIRE

From the front page of The Evening Capital, June 8, 1953



transcript of article
Roads Beach Club Fire Razes Pavilion


The four-deck, frame, Beach Club at Annapolis Roads,
built in 1928 on a bluff overlooking the mouth of the
Severn River, was destroyed by fire early today.

The building was owned by Club Estates, Inc.,
Paul S. Anderson, President,
Ray Shields, an officer of the corporation,
estimated the loss at $100,00.

Mr. Shields said the fire apparently started in the top
floor. He said no one was in the building at the time.

The flames were seen at North Severn about 2:40 A.M.
and the Eastport firemen were notified.
Four fire companies, Eastport, Independent Rescue and
West Annapolis, with seven piecers of apparatus responded.

Engulfed in Flames
When the firemen arrived they found the building
engulfed in flames. They saved some beach chairs,
soft drinks and slot machines.

Mr. Anderson said the fire would cause no curtailment
of the summer programs, as all scheduled activities
will be transferred to other buildings on the premises.

At 2:30 A.M. the local police received a call from
a guard on the No. 3 gate at the Naval Academy reporting
he had heard a call from a Navy patrol car of a fire
in the vicinity of Horn Point. A check by police located
the fire at Annapolis Roads.

The club was burned to the ground. Firemen did what they
could until 6 A.AM. The last truck left the scene at 7:50 A.M.

At 4:09 A.M. firemen were called out for a fire which
destroyed a small vacant house located between Bar-Bud Lane
and Janwald Street.


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From the Washington Post, June 9, 1953:


transcript of article
Club House Razed In Annapolis Fire

ANNAPOLIS, June 8 (AP) -- Fire destroyed the spacious Annapolis Roads Beach Club early today.
Owners estimated the loss at $100,000.

The four-story wooden building was almost leveled at the beach of Annapolis Roads,
a private development about five miles east of here at he mouth of the Severn River.
A Navy man on watch across the river saw the blaze at about 1:30 a.m. (EST).
He called in an alarm, but seven engines from Annapolis volunteer companies were unable to halt the fire.
Ray Shields, an operator of the club and other Annapolis Roads facilities,
said the blaze evidently started on the top floor, which housed an office and furniture.
Cause was not determined.

The beach house, with a pavillion on the shore, was built in 1928.
Its four decks towered above the development. Locker rooms and showers occupied two floors.
Shields said the beach house had not opened for the summer, but a number of visitors spent the afternoon at the beach.
Many were drawn to the grounds to watch an exhibition match by professional golfers.

The building was owned by Club Estates Inc., a firm headed by Paul S. Anderson, Annapolis Real Estate man.






THE DUMP
Just to the left of where the Beach Club sat, was the neighborhood dump.
Yup, that’s right, Annapolis Roads had it’s own junk yard.

It’s where people disposed of their old washing machines, tires, and other houshold junk and big trash.
The golf course used it as well. I remember there being old golf gear there too. We used to scavenge it as kids to make things like go carts.
It was a child’s wonder pile. We climbed all through it, picking up junk to play with (and nobody ever died as a result).
The dump pile started at the top of the hill and draped down the slope of the hill ending just before the water’s edge.
There were tons and tons of old car tires there.
We used to collect them and roll them down the hill through The Squiggly Tree to see how far out they would go into the bay.




THE SQUIGGLY TREE

The Squiggly Tree was one of those ultra-special places.
We'd sit amongst it's roots, climb up and down it, or just hang out there with our friends.
It's setting high above the water amidst trees and raspberry bushes offered a peaceful and soothing view of the bay -
and in high summer, natural snacks to quench our dry mouths and empty stomachs with the ready supply of red raspberries.
I haven't been back to the tree since the late 1980's.
I'm guessing that either construction of L'Altura or natural erosion has made it vanish.
Either way, I don't want to "know" that it is gone. It will always be there as far as I am concerned.

The Squiggly Tree
These two pictures were taken in the summer of 1976

Top photo was taken from the crest of the cliff
(near the concrete platform and old building next to Molly Malone's house) 

The bottom photo was taken from the beach, looking up.
We used to climb easily up and/or down through the Squiggly Tree.
By the late 1970's erosion had made it impossible to CLIMB through our beloved tree, and it was too far to jump down safely.




CIRCLE OF SEATS IN THE WOODS

I knew the beach like the back of my hand. I went there regularly for years.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, this little circle of seats appeared.
It was at the southern end of the beach, to the right of the field, about where the beach playground is now.
You can see the Bay through the trees when looking at the picture on the left.
The picture at the right was taken with the Bay at the photographer's back.
It was really IN the woods, as you couldn't see the beach at all and could barely see the bay if the leaves were on the trees.
I've never known who set this up. Whoever it was must have found a small clearing in the woods and constructed it.
It was probably built, or at least discovered by me and my peers later in our days, probably 1974 or so.
These two pictures were taken in the summer of 1976

 




MID 60’s SUMMER DAY-CAMP AT THE BEACH
Between the dump and Molly Malone's house on Lyon Drive (and bordering the path to the squiggly tree) was a concrete platform.
It was built up with cinderblock support walls. Part of the small complex was a large white, wooden, barn-like building.
The building was there for years, gradually deteriorating until it was eventually demolished probably in the early 1980’s.

It was a one story affair with a loft for storage.
There was an old Coca-Cola horizontal refridgerated cooler (non-working) in it and lots of old furniture.
We used to play in it, climb around up in the loft. In the summer of 1964 or maybe 1965 there was a summer camp at here.
We made crafts and played typical kid camp games.
The counselor was named Miss Jennifer Bell. A few years later she was the P.E. teacher at Tyler Heights Elementary School.




F.A.A.R.D
(to my knowledge there was never a second one, or S.A.A.R.D)


In the summer of 1975 the community had a cleanup party at the beach that was dubbed F.A.A.R.D
(The First Annual Annapolis Roads Day).

We picked up trash around the beach area.
Fortuitously, over the course of a day or two before FAARD, strong winds miraculously pushed the waterline out about 50 feet into the bay.
That resulted in our being able to walk out into the bay 50 feet further than usual, since the waves were breaking far out from the beach.
Yes, it was soft and muddy but this enabled us to pick up much more garbage,
i.e., tires (many of the ones we had taken from the dump and rolled into the water ourselves), bottles, cans, old chairs, and other junk
that would not have been accessible without the wind moving the waterline.
It was a FAARD miracle!
which enabled a very successful clean up.


THE BIG STORM OF ‘76
In December of 1976 there was a huge storm that, overnight!, eroded a huge portion of the hill that led to the beach.
Before that day you could walk (or at most-difficult, climb) down to the beach at just about any point.
Then, the wind and rain turned the hill into a cliff and dropped (literally) tons of dirt and debris onto the beach.
I know this because I was at the beach on the day before the storm and the day after. I was slack-jawed when I saw the change.

I do not have any photos of “before” but here is one from 1990 that pretty well captures the cliff that resulted from the storm.
This is before L’Altura was built. This was at the north end of the tile deck where the Beach Club existed.
Directly below me is where the well and the sink ended up on the beach.

Before the storm caused the hill to become a cliff you could get down to the beach pretty easily anywhere along the hill.
This point on the hill WAS the most difficult place to access the beach. It was steep and the path was worn to slipperyness.
It did take a bit of scampering, but any relatively nimble six-year-old child could manage the descent.
Using the path, it was not a big deal, heck, it was fun.
Convenientally, there was a vine at the most difficult part of the path that helped make the trip a bit easier.
The well was right in the middle of the path. We stepped around it on every ascent or descent.
During that storm enough of the hill was washed away to cause the previously in-ground well to come crashing down onto the beach,
where it remained for over a decade. There were trees and other detritus on the beach as well as trivial parts of the Beach Club,
and it’s associated trash that had been buried underground for decades before the storm.

I’m guessing that when L’Altura was built all of the debris, on the hill and on the beach, was removed.




THE BEACH IN 1988

In 1988 I took some video at the beach.
The following 3 photos are screen grabs.


This is the deck that would have been, I’m guessing, right at the base of the Beach Club.

Until the late 1970’s the deck was pretty much flat and unbroken.
In the intervening years tides and weather made it buckle.
I have one of the tiles. I took in in the early 1980’s as a memento.





This is the well that, when I was a child, was in the ground and vertical.
It was about 30 feet from the beach up in the hill where the Beach Club was.
I don’t know what it’s function was.



This is a sink that was on the beach in 1988.
I am postulating that it was buried, or at least under leaves and sticks
when I was young. I played in those woods so frequently and thoroughly that
if it had been readily viewable, I would have seen it then.





IN CONCLUSION


"A beach is a place where a man can feel he's the only soul in the world that's real"
. . . Pete Townsend - 'Bell Boy' from Quadrophenia

Every time I am in Annapolis, I get to visit my parents every couple of years, I make it a point to go down to the beach and to wander through the woods. It is like visiting an old friend. Yes, things there have changed dramatically, but so have we all. I reminisce about our youth together and reflect fondly on all our shared experiences.
(I'm speaking about myself and my relationship with the beach and the woods. They were ALIVE to me, with personality)

I may only spend 30 minutes or so at the beach but when I do I let out a big sigh, close my eyes, taste the salt in the air, smell the rotting horseshoe crabs, feel the breeze on my face, and hear the neverending waves' pulse as they break on the shore. I am transfixed and transported back to a time and place that exists only in old photos and in the memories of those who were lucky enough to experience that "Little bit of teenage heaven right here on earth." (F. Zappa) I know how fortunate I am to have the Annapolis Roads of the 1960's and 1970's as part of my upbringing. All of us who lived there then, though we didn't know it at the time, know now how lucky we were.

I feel sorry for the kids of today, my own included, who won't have these sort of memories to accompany them through their years. They will have good memories, undoubtedly, but with the way that our culture has changed, that fact that children are rarely left to their own devices to explore and grow as we were, well, they really will have missed out. Over the years I've wandered through Annapolis Roads' woods (Ogleton Woods) many, many times. What I've noticed is that there are no signs of kidtivity (that's kids' activity) in the woods. In our day, there were forts - lots of forts, paths, holes, and all kinds of signs that the woods were alive with the spirit and play of children. Not so any more. I have seen what looks like a dirt bike path, but that's only a way for people to go through the woods, not a real interaction WITH the woods.

The things we learned and the way we learned them, i.e., with no adult-directed structure limiting our free time or the breadth of our experiences, enabled us to grow in a way that today's children are unequipped to even envy. "Just be home before dark" was what we were told. Mom NEVER knew where we were or what we were doing. Sure, we got cut, our bare feet were tough but not always a match for a broken coke bottle. And yes, we did break the occasional bone or chip the occasional tooth, but it was no big deal. Nobody got sued. Nobody really complained. It was just a natural, and expected, part of growing up.

In today's world those kind of experiences (injuries) are not considered "normal" in the over-protected world of contemporary children. A world where parents control EVERY aspect of their children's lives. Which is a real shame. Sure, 8-years-old kids today may be better soccer or lacrosse players then we were at that age (because they've been playing organized sports since they were three) but do they, or can they, get the neighborhood kids together on their own to play and referee a satisfying game of ball, or build a fort on their own?
Well . . ., maybe.

The confidence that we built up on our our, without adults constantly hovering nearby, without getting trophies for merely participating, learning through independent trial and error (and our errors rarely resulted in the need for medical or legal professionals) seems somehow stronger, purer, and more natural and consequential.

It was a special time.
It was a special place.
Thank you Mom and Dad for letting us grow on our own
in such a wonderful, wonderful world.



The Pool Today (still photos)

The Tennis Courts Today

A Gallery of Swim Team Ribbons

League and Team Championship Programs

My memories of THE BEACH (with photos)

The Forts We Built in the Woods

HOME

If you have pictures or anything else (articles, anecdotes, etc.) relating to the pool or swim team that you would like to share

CLICK HERE and send it to me.

Bruce Bubier, February 2015

If you haven't seen the Official Annapolis Roads web site
Check it out here www.annapolisroads.net