Bringing Back the Romance of Sylvan Beach

Submitted by Betsy A. on Wed, 07/22/2009 - 12:24pm

(Photograph from La Porte Community Library Vertical Files, donated by family of Erna B. Foxworth)One of my first assignments when coming to work at La Porte Community Library was to organize the local history materials.

Sylvan Beach Park captured my interest quickly: In the beginning decades of the 20th century, Sylvan Beach was a major attraction; people came from all over the country to enjoy the beach, Galveston Bay breezes, large dance floor with high quality bands, “bathing girl revues”, picnics, and other pastimes.

The magic of the park has been captured in a book that can be checked out from the library: The romance of old Sylvan Beach : a hundred years of amusement and nostalgia/ by Erna B. Foxworth.

Anyone who visited Sylvan Beach in recent decades discovered that the “beach” part of Sylvan Beach has eroded away. Instead of sand, the shoreline consists of a wooden bulkhead and concrete rubble.

But now the beach at Sylvan Beach is being restored through a joint project of the Texas General Land Office, the City of La Porte, and Harris County. The work started in April and is scheduled to be completed in the fall of this year.

A description of the process of the beach construction can be found in this news release from the Texas General Land Office website: http://www.glo.state.tx.us/news/docs/2009-Releases/05-06-09_Sylvan-beach.pdfw.glo.state.tx.us/news/docs/2009-Releases/05-06-09_Sylvan-beach.pdf

Sylvan Beach will soon be a beach again!