The Old Orchard Beach Pier

From above the beach, the pier looks like a simple invitation to walk out over Saco Bay. Swimmers and sunbathers spread across the sand below it, while the buildings at its far end seem to float above the water. This stretch of shoreline has drawn generations of visitors, and the pier has given them a place to gather beyond the beach itself.

From above the beach, the pier looks like a simple invitation to walk out over Saco Bay. Swimmers and sunbathers spread across the sand below it, while the buildings at its far end seem to float above the water. This stretch of shoreline has drawn generations of visitors, and the pier has given them a place to gather beyond the beach itself.

Entertainment kept drawing people back. During the big band years, the Pier Casino became a place to dance over the waves. Guy Lombardo, Rudy Vallée, and Duke Ellington were among the performers who came to Old Orchard Beach. Some of the Black musicians who played at the pier also found a welcome at Rose Cummings’s guest house on Portland Avenue when other lodging in town was closed to them. The music remembered as part of the pier’s golden years belongs to their story, too.

The pier’s history also includes a summer night that many residents never forgot. On July 19, 1969, fire broke out in the White Way amusement area near its entrance. Flames swept through rides and concessions and destroyed roughly a third of the pier. People escaped from the pier as firefighters worked to keep the fire from spreading farther into town. The hand-carved carousel horses and the rocking Noah’s Ark fun house were among the losses remembered most vividly. There were no deaths. The old Pier Casino was demolished the following year

Then came the February 1978 storm, which nearly demolished what remained of the pier. Once again, Old Orchard Beach rebuilt. The replacement opened in June 1980, shorter and different from the great steel pier of 1898, but reaching out from the same beach.

The pier we saw carries all those earlier summers within its story: the first ballroom lost to a storm, the crowds dancing to big bands, the families who treasured the amusement rides, and the people who built again after fire and weather changed the shoreline. Looking at it above the beach, I could see why the town kept bringing the pier back. It offers the pleasure of walking out over the sea and, for a little while, seeing Old Orchard Beach from another point of view.