The new public park at ex-Beachcomber nightclub nearly open in Quincy. What you will see

QUINCY − The city's Park Division is nearing completion on the new Beachcomber Park along Quincy Shore Drive. More than 2,000 native plants will go into the site across from Wollaston Beach, along with an 8-foot-wide stone-dust path and monuments to the famed former nightclub's 56-year history, according to the city’s website.

The building that would eventually become a popular Quincy music venue and bar stood on Quincy Shore Drive for 90 years before its demolition in 2021. The late Jimmy McGettrick turned it into The Beachcomber in 1959. It closed in 2015, when the Dropkick Murphys gave the farewell performance.

Quincy Natural Resources Commissioner Dave Murphy said Wednesday that workers will finish the plantings in the coming days. After repairs to the walking path, the park should open to the public in days, Murphy said.

The city bought the property in 2021 at the direction of Mayor Thomas Koch. Murphy said the site had attracted proposals from developers, but input from neighbors and the location’s exposure to flooding motivated the city to preserve the property as open space.

Community Preservation Committee money covered the $2.25 million purchase as well as $850,000 for planning and site work.

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The park was designed to alleviate flooding, Murphy said. In the past, rainwater would sheet off Quincy Shore Drive, run down the packed gravel of the Beachcomber parking lot and flood a low-lying residential street behind the property.

Murphy described the new park as a “rain garden,” with loose soil, loam and water-loving plants helping to absorb precipitation.

“It looks good, and it acts good,” Murphy said.

How will the Beachcomber be memorialized?

The city plans a formal dedication in the fall, when monuments to the site’s history, McGettrick and his business partner, Joe Kintigos, will be installed. The main monument will imitate the vertical Beachcomber sign with green lettering that stood in front of the club.

In addition, granite markers will recognize some of the world-class acts that passed through the venue throughout its history, including Judy Garland, Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Tony Bennett, Linda Ronstadt, the Dropkick Murphys and more.

How is the park on Quincy Shore Drive designed

Quincy Environmentalist Scientist Heather Lis, who heads the project, said the plantings and the walking path are the main improvements. Pointing to a row of steppingstones roughly in the center of the park, Lis said she could imagine children jumping from one to the other.

Around the steppingstones, flowering plants will attract birds, small wildlife and pollinators, Lis said.

The park will showcase native plants, where all of the grasses, shrubs, flowers and trees are native to Massachusetts and New England. Lis named butterfly weed, blueberry bushes, cardinal flower, asters and bluestem grass as examples.

Why the Beachcomber sat empty for so long before it was demolished

Before the city's acquisition, the property had been embroiled in a real estate scam by convicted conman Scott Wolas.

The McGettrick family told The Patriot Ledger in 2015 that they were selling the land to a group of investors who wanted to demolish the old club and build a high-end restaurant.

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In September 2016, investors in the Wollaston Beach property told authorities that a man named Eugene Grathwohl killed the deal to buy The Beachcomber and cheated them out of $2 million. They also claimed that Grathwohl was the latest fake identity of Wolas, at the time a fugitive charged with swindling investors out of more than $100 million in the 1990s when he was based in New York.

After Wolas went on a business trip and never came back, the investors started digging into the background of their business partner and found photos and other evidence proving that the name Grathwohl was just another alias used by Wolas.

Nearly two years later, in June 2018, Wolas admitted to the Beachcomber scheme and pleaded guilty in federal court to seven counts of wire fraud, one count of aggravated identity theft, misuse of a Social Security number and tax evasion.

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Reach Peter Blandino at pblandino@patriotledger.com

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Quincy's former Beachcomber nightclub converted into public park