Summer Games on a Lost Shore: Women and Racing at Orchard Beach in the 1900s

Summer Games on a Lost Shore: Women and Racing at Orchard Beach in the 1900s

In the years before World War I, the name “Orchard Beach” referred not to a single, engineered shoreline but to a collection of beaches and resorts along the Pelham Bay coast. This area, encompassing the shores of Rodman’s Neck and the nearby Hunter and Twin Islands, served as a summer escape for New York City’s working-class and immigrant families. It was here, on these less formal shores, that community groups and associations held annual picn…