Look Back: Sandy Beach at Harveys Lake opened in 1925

Aug. 6—Longtime friends and business partners William V. Davis and Thomas Pugh had an idea in 1924 they expanded that provided decades of memories for anyone who traveled to Harveys Lake to escape the summer heat.

Davis and Pugh formed the Sandy Park Corporation that developed Sandy Bathing Beach in a section of Harveys Lake called West Corners that officially opened to the public July 4, 1925.

For more than a half a century, Sandy Beach as it became known was a popular destination for bathing-suit dressed swimmers from all across the region.

"Sandy Bathing Beach will be formally opened today. Come and enjoy an invigorating swim in the pure, cool waters gently rippling over the only Sandy Beach at the Lake," read an advertisement published in the Wilkes-Barre Record Aug. 8, 1925.

Soon after the opening, Davis and Pugh hired Julian Sosnowski to construct a bath house that opened during the first week of August 1925 with nearly 800 lockers to keep personal items.

"The Sandy Beach bath house of West Corners, Harveys Lake, is gaining in popularity, especially within the past week as the weather has been ideal for bathing. The owners, William V. Davis and Thomas Pugh, are pleased over the attendance. One of the most interesting features is the free parking space," reported the Record on Aug. 19, 1925.

If you did not own a bathing suit. No problem. The bath house eventually rented suits for as low as five cents per day.

Despite several court challenges from permanent residents, Davis and Pugh constructed a dance hall and concession stands that overlooked the beach and lake in the latter half of the 1920s.

Independence Day 1926 drew thousands of people to Sandy Beach for swimming races, a bathing beauty contest, high diving contests and speed boat races with Gilligan's Orchestra being the main entertainment ending the night with fireworks.

The dance hall was used as a training facility for light heavy-weight boxing champion Tommy Loughran to train in July 1928 for his match against contender Pete Latzo of Scranton that was held at Artillery Park in Wilkes-Barre on July 16, 1928. Loughran won the match by unanimous decision.

A day after Loughran arrived at Sandy Beach where he was a guest at Pugh's lake cottage, state policemen had to untangle traffic snarls from more than 7,500 people who traveled to Harveys Lake to watch him train.

"More than 1,500 automobiles were parked near Sandy Beach yesterday while thousands of fans from all over the coal regions watched Loughran go through his work-out. Crowded conditions will prevail on the Harveys Lake road all this week for the public is invited to see the champion work out daily at 2 p.m.," the Record reported July 9, 1928.

With the crowds venturing to see Loughran train, Evans and Pugh charged $.25 cents per automobile to park.

Loughran would return to Sandy Beach to train for his match against James L. Braddock held at Yankee Stadium on July 18, 1929.

"A half mile of beach-front, freshly sanded with seashore sand, will greet the thousands of bathers and fun-seekers when they attend the formal opening of Sandy Beach, Harveys Lake," the Record reported May 28, 1930.

Davis and Pugh would spend nearly $40,000 to construct a bigger dance pavilion and erect a merry-go-round near the children's playground adjacent to the beach. In time, a drive-in theater would be built at Sandy Beach.

A record 6,000 people attended the Miss Lady of the Lake beauty contest at Sandy Beach won by Gladys Dailey, 18, of Sweet Valley, on Aug. 14, 1960.

From the 1925 opening through the latter half of the 1970s, Sandy Beach was the destination of families and young adults until private ownership eventually ended its existence.