As beach season begins — and the newly retro-named Old Mill Grocery prepares to reopen — it’s time to look at Old Mill Beach, back in the day.
Seth Schachter sent a fascinating postcard, from his vast collection. Click on or hover over to enlarge:
There is so much to see here: the meadow (foreground), where homes now stand.
The channel (now filled in) that runs from Sherwood Mill Pond toward a pair of homes (or sheds?), long ago demolished or destroyed by storms.
Old Mill Beach itself — back then, just rocks or grass.
The handsome stand of trees.
The narrow strip of land on the north side of Old Mill Road. Were the houses there now built on landfill?
I wonder too who took this “bird’s-eye view” — and how? Was it from Compo Hill, or a low-flying airplane?
So much has changed at Old Mill in the century or so since this photo was taken. But from the pedestrian bridge and the “grist mill” house , on out to Compo Cove, the scene seems timeless.
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Wow, do I love this photo. When I was doing historical research about the former Allen’s Clam House site, now Sherwood Mill Pond Preserve, I found photos of this scene but taken from across the pond (Sherwood Island side) looking toward today’s Burnham Hill area. It was all meadow and farmland up there – hardly a house amidst it all.