Go Jump in a Lake!

In the days before our beautiful public pool, people swam in Rosemary Lake. Seriously. Swimming in Rosemary was an adventure that included murky water, fish, turtles, and…  (eeww!) leeches? Things are so much better now.

This story is an updated/shortened version of a two-parter written for the NHC&M Gazette in 2018 by Steve Sauter.

Needham’s beautiful Rosemary Pool is about to open next week for the season. Not that the weather has been very summery yet, but we have faith… The water is sparkling and clear, plus there are water slides, showers, lap lanes, spray features, swimming lessons – Not like the Old Days….

Needham’s first “official” swimming place was on the Charles River, not Rosemary Lake. In 1912, the town established Charles River Park, a “beach” on the river at the intersection of South Street and Dedham Avenue, though the “Old Swimming Hole” had been used for swimming for many years already. The town hired a lifeguard (said to be very vigilant due to “danger that is always present owing to the rapid current in the river”), and added a six room bathhouse, and a large raft anchored in the bend. Swimming was boys only or girls only on alternating days (no mixed bathing!)

However, even with the new Charles River Beach, the push was on for Rosemary Lake, touted in 1917 by the Park Commissioners as “centrally located and… well adapted to bathing purposes. It is a beauty spot and should be controlled by the town… A bath house located on that property would serve the whole town and make a safe place from which to bathe, as well as to encourage other water and land sports.”  But the proposal went no further.  The pond, in reality a meadow dug out in the 1830s to provide water for a nearby hat factory, was shallow and continually choked with vegetation. By that time, the hat factory was gone and the Lake was mostly decorative. William Carter bought it around 1900 when he bought the mill alongside. He did not use the Lake for his mill – he stocked it with swans and ran his motor launch on it. Since the water was clean, it was also a source of ice – the Union Ice Company harvested ice in the winter and stored it in great blocks in an ice house on the shore, in the spot that is now the parking lot. Their operation lasted from the late 1800s until the ice house burned down in 1931.

The idea of a swimming lake was revived in 1930, when Representative James McCracken advocated for swimming in Rosemary Lake, which was “fed by springs and clear brooks, free of currents,” and “almost at the geographic center of town.” It took three years, but in 1933 the project finally moved forward when the Needham Board of Trade purchased the lakeside property from the Carter family for $1 plus remittance of taxes. Led by the Board of Trade, local volunteers and businesses helped to deepen the lake, clear the bottom of muck and weeds, clear debris, demolish the old ice house, and deposit gravel and sand to create a 300-foot wide beach. And as work continued, the public was assured: “The view is naturally not one to arouse any great degree of enthusiasm” but to “remember that even Needham’s beautiful high school building, in its early stages, was a rather hopeless thing to look at.”

Once completed, Rosemary Beach had a raft and diving board 150 feet from the shore, bath houses for men and women, outdoor showers, drinking fountain, a wooden walk with benches between the lake and the nearby hillside, and a roped-off area for small children.  The Board of Trade treated the lake with copper sulphate to reduce vegetation, which also killed many of the resident suckers (um, fish… I hope?) and turtles, but not the highly-prized trout, pickerel, and perch. On August 5, 1933, the Rosemary Beach Carnival celebrated the opening with a canoe race, exhibition diving, and swimming races for girls and boys of various ages.  

By 1934, there are references to a large raft with two diving boards, with two more on a tower.  A radio set had been installed “for baseball returns, music, etc.”  Some folks, though, still stuck to the old ways – as late as 1950, the town was urging the public to not use “the old swimming beach on South Street near Green Street” and had posted “No Swimming” signs because of “broken glass and lack of maintenance and lifeguard supervision.”

By 1943, the Board of Trade could no longer fund and manage Rosemary Beach on its own, so the town purchased the property and Park and Recreation assumed responsibility for the swimming program.  The newspaper noted the acquisition would, “in view of war conditions, provide Needham youth with healthful recreations.”  Sundays frequently witnessed groups of convalescent soldiers at the beach.  A 1949 article referenced the upcoming Fourth of July “novelty races” on the water, comparing them to the amusing tub races of prior years, and noted continued facility improvements to the cat walk and to the diving tower.

For the next few decades, swimming in the lake was Needham’s summer pastime. But it was not without its challenges.  A trademark of the swimming experience was the dark, murky water – a result of the deep silt, leaves from the surrounding trees, and algae.  In the 1960s, the bottom was dredged again to remove some silt, and sand was brought in to improve the beach.  In the summer of 1969, Park and Rec counted more than 54,000 visits. 

By 1970, however, the heavy usage and increasing suburban development took its toll.  The water’s visibility fell below the state’s lifeguard safety standards. Runoff from nearby homes leached fertilizers and household chemicals into the lake.  In 1970, the Lake was closed for swimming.

As the Rosemary Lake Reclamation Committee considered various solutions, the town built a temporary swimming pool alongside the lake.  The pool was intended to be a stopgap until a more permanent solution was found. However, the Committee ultimately rejected options to reopen the lake for swimming.  Studies indicated that weed growth had accelerated and would eventually change the lake back into a swamp.  Also, the abundant leaves interfered with the nutrient balance.  But the lake could still support some fish life so, with a bit of optimism and a lot of nostalgia, the Needham Times noted, “Still it would be nice to have that old swimming hole again!”

Rosemary Lake never got reclaimed for swimming. The “temporary” pool ended up serving the town for more than 45 years, with its annual maintenance requiring the lake to be drained so the weight of its water did not collapse the fragile pool walls. The pool systems were also showing their age, as failures in the filtration system necessitated long closures during hot summer weather.  In 2010, a citizens’ group called The Community Center of Needham started working with the town’s residents and administration to move forward on a plan to rebuild the pool and improve the recreational structures around it, and in August 2018 the new complex opened for business. (“New pool – so cool!”).  Extensive work was done the following year, with silt mitigation, improved drainage, and runoff control, to restore Rosemary Lake to as  healthy a pond environment as possible – giving us now the best of both.