Urban microcosm: Revere Beach

June 9, 2005 | Uncategorized

Revere, named for Paul of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poetic fame …

 

Paul_reveres_ride_2 

“The condos are coming!  The condos are coming!”

 

… was for a time a day-trip destination,

 

Revere_beach_narrow_gauge

Take the train to the beach!

 

like Brighton and Blackpool in the UK, or Coney Island in New York, its long sloping brown-sand beach attracted travelers out of the teeming urban tenements of Boston and its abutting towns. 

 

Revere_beach_1902 

 

An early version of the theme park …

 

Revere_beach_wonderland

 

… possible forerunner of Disneyland …

 

Wonderland_park_1906_disney 

 

… it proved immensely popular,

 

Revere_beach_holiday_crowd

 

… but by the end of World War II it was crumbling, and with the auto-fueled migration to the outer suburbs, the beach steadily declined.  By 1969, when I first saw it, there was little except a rusting crumbling roller-coaster called the Cyclone that, closed and gray, stood like the skeleton of an iron python. 

 

Revere_beach_cyclone 

 

And thus Revere Beach has sat, for the better part of forty years, until now the economic pressure of rising Boston rents and prices is once again changing Revere Beach, this time into a commuter bedroom community.

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