White Horse Beach, Massachusetts

Flag Rock lies off shore White Horse Beach in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

White Horse Beach is a village of Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States. It is located on Cape Cod Bay, south of Priscilla Beach. Much of the southern end of the beach, which is also known as Taylor Avenue Beach, south of the outflow of Bartlett Pond, either has cottages on it or has a fenced off conservation area to protect the dunes and fragile plant life.

At the northern end of the beach is a rock protruding from the water with an American flag painted on. According to local lore, this act of patriotism was performed to cover a Nazi swastika painted on the rock. In the summer of 1941, local teenagers painted the first flag and went on to join the armed forces after Pearl Harbor was bombed in December of that year. The harsh winter storms washed the flag thin, so the swastika showed through. The next Fourth of July, the tradition of re-painting the flag was born.

There is a small business district just beyond the northern end of the beach. It has a general store and a Post Office. Its ZIP code is 02381. Residents and businesses in this village that are non-Post Office box holders use Plymouth's ZIP code of 02360. Further inland was St. Catherine's Chapel (which had fallen into disrepair, was sold to an individual with local ties who razed the structure and directed the landscaping of the property with grass and trees to serve as a small park) and White Horse Cemetery, which dates back to the early 18th century. The Post Office, originally inside the General Store, leases a space in the former White Horse Bowling Alley that included pool tables, and pinball machines. Pin setting was done manually by "Pin Spotters", who had to move fast to keep up with the Bowlers. Two hotels were located on White Horse Beach, the Mayflower and the White Horse Hotel. The Mayflower has since burned and the area developed into Condos. White Horse Hotel was torn down in the sixties to make way for a parking lot.