FWB Facts

Purpose:

The Friends of Wollaston Beach (in Quincy MA) is an organization promoting public use of Wollaston Beach, preserving and protecting the fragile ecosystems, and addressing the quality of life issues relating to the Beach.  The goal of the Association is to promote the wise use and preservation of the Beach, encouraging volunteerism, alerting others to issues affecting the Beach through educational, cultural, social and civic programs, and advocating on behalf of Beach users. 

Officers for 2008:

President:             Neil McCole

Treasurer:                     Maureen Mazrimas

Vice-President:    Scott Smith 

Recording Secretary:    Robert Verney


Past President: Kristen Awed-Ladas,   Past VP: Richard Herbert

 

Updated Bylaws:  Please click Here!

 

Dues:  $10 per ‘voting’ member per year. No distinction made for organizations, families, business etc.

 

Contact/Mailing methods:  email if an address is provided, otherwise via US Mail.
Members shall not be ‘penalized’ if they choose not to use email.

 

Confidentiality/Privacy:  All membership information (names, email/home address, phone numbers) shall be held in strict confidence.  Emails sent out to the group at large shall not divulge the email address of any other member or recipient, without explicit prior consent.
 

Meetings: Quarterly:

 

Publicity (to be notified) QATV, City of Quincy ‘Quick Links’, Quincy Sun, Patriot Ledger.

 

Web Contact:  Assistant Webmaster:  Rich Joyce   (617) 653 9787 info@wollastonbeach.org  (site content composed by same)

 

FWB 'start up' History:    

August 22, 2006        Public Meeting   to get input, feasibility

October 11, 2006      Public Meeting   By-Laws approved.

November 14, 2006  Public Meeting:  First official meeting:

January 4, 2007        Speakers: Karl Pastore and Nate Skrocki of DCR.

March 1, 2007       Water Quality, Plantings, a little bit of History

April 5, 2007           Events Brainstorm, Logo Unveiling, Reservations about the ‘Welcome’ sign…

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


A very brief of history of the first 100 years  (and few before) of  Wollaston Beach:
Quincy Shore Reservation was concieved in 1899 by the Metropolitan Parks Commissioners, and remains as the formal/legal name of  Wollaston Beach, Caddy Park, and Moswetusset Hummock. The 'birth' of Wollaston Beach occurred in 1908 with the completion of the "Metropolitan Boulevard" from Atlantic St to Fenno St.

The "Mount Wollaston River" bridge at Blacks Creek was completed in 1925, and the bridge was  dedicated to the memory of Sgt. Philip Greenberg USMC (WWII) in 1961. The Greenberg Bridge was rebuilt in 1974. At that same time, Blacks Creek was dredged, and  the order came for it to be dug out to several feet below Low Tide Level so as to 'alleviate'  flooding upstream at the mouth of Furnace Brook. This order came from a politician and not an engineer, because this action did nothing to stem the flooding and only served to undermine the new approach to the Bridge, until the engineers managed to stop the digging.


Black's Creek was named for Moses Blacks, a good friend and neighbor of President John Adams and Abigail . (Abigail's letters spelled his name as 'Blacks').   He lived in the "Dorothy Q" house on Butler Rd.

Ruffs (or Rufes) Hummock was named for Rufus Davis, essentially banished to live there when his wife died and he  took up with too much 'spirits and loose women'.

 Gull Island is now known as Caddy Park, dedicated to the memory of Sgt William Caddy USMC (WWII, posthumously awarded Congressional Medal of Honor).

Pageant Field was named from the celebration of Quincy's Tercentenary (ter CEN ten ary) in 1925. "Lower Merrymount" was chosen for the site of "The Pageant of Quincy" :  3-hours in length, and truly  a cast of thousands of Quincy residents, to depict 'The 300 Years of Quincy'.  All of the several performances held during the week long celebration were a huge success. The concept could have led directly to the notion of the HBO mini-series, but once 'talking pictures' took hold, the "Grand Pageant" was no more. But the name "Pageant Field" stays on. The scene depicted on the official Seal of the City of Quincy is essentially the view from Pageant Field.


Wollaston Beach 'Reservation'? Quincy Shores Reservation?   FoWBR?
Nope, they are just typo's on signs here and there. The 'Shores' typo has persisted sporadically probably because so many other DCR properties are named in that pluarlistic fashion, such as "Lynn Shores" .  But the original land plans clearly say "Quincy Shore ...".  Even FWB got caught up in the mix, as our original charter called for "The Friends of Wollaston Beach Reservation" (FoWBR). When it was realized that in fact there was no Wollaston Beach Reservation and thus we risked our legal standing(*), there were no reservations to dropping the R (phonetically easy for most of us anyway), but we didnt stop until we completed the clean look by dropping the little 'o' as well. FWB became a  capital idea. Lucky for us we didnt order T-shirts too early.

(*) even though we never did have a 'legal standing' in a corporate sense.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo/Graphics  Credits: Photos without explicit ‘citation’ are property of FWB (an un-incorporated, legally non-existant, entity). "Reconizable" subjects in all photos appear only with their full knowledge and consent; they have given permission for posting on this web site only. Exceptions for photos that have been previously published. All Copyrights are implied.