1882 Howe Bird's-Eye View of the Point of Pines, Revere, Massachusetts

This is a c. 1882 E.R. Howe bird's-eye view map of the Point of Pines at Revere Beach or Chelsea Beach, Massachusetts. A point of land on Boston Harbor between Boston and Lynn, the Point of Pines was once called Chelsea Beach, but is known as Revere Beach today. Two hotels, the Goodwood and the Pines, occupy the foreground, along with a café. Vacationers and day-trippers stroll along the beach and pathways leading to and from the hotels. A railroad station (a stop on the Boston, Revere Beach, and Lynn Railroad) appears in the background and is connected to the hotels via pathways.

The Goodwood and the Pines

When the Boston, Revere Beach and Lynn Railroad opened in 1875, only one hotel stood on this stretch of sand, the Ocean House, which opened c. 1834 as the Robinson Crusoe House. This hotel was renamed the Hotel Goodwood in 1881 when the newly formed Chelsea Beach Company acquired it, along with two hundred acres of adjacent land. The Chelsea Beach Company soon began construction on the Pines, later called the Point of Pines Hotel and the Hotel Pines. The Pines boasted accommodations for 400 overnight guests and could seat two thousand people in its expansive dining rooms. At 300 feet long, 100 feet wide, and five stories tall, it was the largest hotel on the New England coast. A thirty-two-foot-wide veranda surrounded the first floor, allowing plenty of room for promenading. The Pines opened on Saturday, July 2, 1881. Over the course of its history, the Pines changed hands repeatedly and endured hard times in the years leading up to World War I (1914 - 1918). President Theodore Roosevelt made a campaign stop at the Pines during his 1912 Bull Moose candidacy. The Pines operated until 1913, when it was closed following a police raid that discovered unlicensed liquor sales. It was demolished the following year. The Goodwood was demolished in 1898.

The Boston, Revere Beach, and Lynn Railroad

The Boston, Revere Beach and Lynn Railroad was a narrow-gauge railroad that operated between East Boston and Lynn, Massachusetts from 1875 until 1940. Chartered on May 23, 1874, and opened on July 29, 1875, the Boston, Revere Beach and Lynn carried commuters into Boston and vacationers from Boston to the increasingly popular resorts on Revere Beach and the Point of Pines. The line closer to the hotels illustrated here was moved in the 1890s and Revere Beach Boulevard was constructed along the former tracks. The railroad proved very successful through the late 1920s, and at its height around 1914, serviced over seven million passengers annually. Ridership decreased during the Great Depression. The Boston, Revere Beach and Lynn was forced to file bankruptcy in 1937, and ceased operations on January 27, 1940.

Publication History and Census

This view was created by E. R. Howe and printed by the Forbes Company of Boston c. 1882. We note only one other cataloged example, located at the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library.