The Treasured Lagoon

in South Boston

Since 1972, the Harry McDonough Sailing Center has introduced hundreds of kids to the joy of sailing.

Photograph by Deb McCarthy

Joggers, swimmers, walkers, birders, sailors–thousands enjoy “the Lagoon,” as locals call Pleasure Bay. Protected from ocean waves by Castle Island and the man-made causeway, the bay’s flat water is ideal for open-water swimmers. But its location, jutting out to the sea, also captures winds that exhilarate kite boarders and wind surfers.

The Lagoon was a perfect location for South Boston native Harry McDonough to share his love of sailing by establishing a sailing program—free for all kids. “All” meant all. In partnership with the Carroll Center for the Blind, Harry established the first sailing program in the country for children with visual impairments. SailBlind later moved to Charlestown and its sailors went on to participate in international blind sailing regattas.

At the Lagoon, the summer sailing program continues to give kids “the opportunity to learn something new, and for many to discover a passion they never knew they had,” explains Aaron Mulligan. Like many, Aaron learned to sail at the McDonough Center and then became an instructor.

Life-long sailor Harry McDonough (1921-1990) believed “the world looks completely different 50 yards from shore,” his daughter recalled.

Photo courtesy of the McDonough family

As the 1930s photo shows, the beach at Pleasure Bay has drawn crowds for decades.

Courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection

Photo by Alena Ashenberg

Photo by Liz Nelson Weaver

Sign Location

More …

Community activists. Colonial law. Political will. New state regulations. The combination created the 43-mile Boston Harborwalk–a public path, stretching from Logan Airport through seven neighborhoods to the Neponset River. In 1978, the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management (CZM) sought to improve public access to the waterfront. They succeeded by integrating early Colonial laws into new state regulations.

In the decades that followed, community activists, city and state government, and developers of shoreline projects have worked together to ensure the Harborwalk is always constructed along the waterfront. Some sites also provide public amenities–bathrooms, meeting places, kayak launches,
etc. The result is a fabulous path welcoming residents and visitors to our vibrant clean harbor.

Early Colonial laws established public right of access along tidelands to protect citizens’ rights to fish, hunt, and navigate at sea and along the shorefront. These laws go back even further: They stem from Roman law, which was incorporated into English law and brought over to Massachusetts by English
settlers. Then, in the 1640s, Massachusetts Bay Colony passed laws permitting private docks in the intertidal area (between low and high tide) as long as public access was retained. Almost all of Boston’s waterfront is filled land that was once the intertidal area. This, together with the centuries-old legal right of access, served as the underpinnings for the 1978 CZM regulations.

Resources

Deb McCarthy photograph

Harry McDonough obituary, Boston Globe, October 11, 1990.

Interviews with Kate Acton, Denise Cohen, Barbara McDonough MacDonald,  Aaron Mulligan, and Steve Sevcik, summer 2021.

O’Neill, Arthur. “SailBlind Program History.” Carroll Center for the Blind.

SailBlind Program

The Carroll Center for the Blind

Acknowledgments

  • This sign is made possible thanks to the city of Boston’s Community Preservation Act Fund.
  • Friends of the Boston Harborwalk thank the Massachusetts Department of Conservation & Recreation for their partnership.
  • Warm thanks to Brendan Albert and Kate Gutierrez for generously funding Spanish translations for the Castle Island/Pleasure Bay signs.
  • Our gratitude to the Perkins School for the Blind Recording Studio and Thomasine Berg for their partnership in creating the audio files.