Smith's Beach Chronology
1901: Harmon A. Smith is born in New Haven, Connecticut, on June 12.
1932: Miller's Beach encourages Connecticut swimmers to enter its aquatic meet being held on June 19. Participants should send entries to John Pollard or Harmon Smith, c/o Miller's Beach, or call Southwick 77 and reverse the call.
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| 1935 Ad |
1936: Harmon Smith, the athletic coach at Agawam High School, purchases Smith's Beach. He previously rented the property for several years, containing about 38 acres of land and 1,500 feet of lakefront. (Smith started coaching in Agawam in 1924. He worked at Miller's Beach in Southwick and at the pool at Riverside Park.)
1937: Seven-year-old Evelyn Fennelly sustains severe injuries after being struck by an automobile while at Smith's Beach on June 13. She is taken to Noble Hospital for emergency treatment before being transferred to St. Francis Hospital in Hartford, Connecticut.
1938: Hadley Furniture Company closes its store at 2:00 p.m. on August 9 so employees can attend the annual employee appreciation steak roast at Smith's Beach.
1941: Alleging breach of contract, Battistoni and Son, Inc. of Southwick files a $500 attachment against Harmon A. Smith on July 31.
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| Smith's Beach |
1951: Parking on State Street in Springfield on Patriot's Day, police charge Harmon A. Smith with his fourth parking violation. Appearing in court on May 18, Smith pleads not guilty. The judge favors Smith, who argues that the parking meters say holidays are free but fail to specify which holidays. The Married Men's Softball League forms with five participating clubs, one being Smith's Beach. (The lineup for the week of June 18 includes Babb's vs. Smith Beach and the Brass Rail vs. the Southwick Progressive Club.) The Congamond Heights Association meets at Smith's Beach in August to discuss road repairs and other community business. Fire tears through a small cottage at Smith's Beach, leaving the Duval family homeless. (Mr. Duval, an Army veteran, lost his vision during a combat jump a month before the fire.)
1953: While visiting Mr. and Mrs. Wilbert Curran of Southwick, Mass., Michael Digionanna of Brooklyn, N.Y., loses his wallet while at Smith's Beach on June 29. When he returns home on July 4, he finds a package containing his wallet and a note. (It is unclear if his $300 was still in the wallet.)
1954: Ralph Rowley of the Smith Beach bowling team wins the high single with 115 and the high three with 316. Smith's Beach wins the high team single with 491 and the high team triple with 1412 in September.
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| Harmon A. Smith (1954) |
1958: Charles Baiardi, owner of Smith's Beach, submits his candidacy for assessor.
1959: Approximately 65 Southwick residents living south of Granville Road to Depot Street register for a community swimming class held at Smith's Beach starting July 13.
1960: Southwick Men's Bowling League standings include: Smith Beach, wins 16 - losses 8; Southwick Tastee Freeze, 12-12; Bontempo's Package Store, 12-12; Brass Rail, 12-12; Brookside, 13-11; and a handful of other teams. The Congamond Ski Club holds a water ski show at Smith's Beach starting at 2:00 p.m. on August 28. The exhibition includes three and five-person pyramids, ski jumping, and various demonstrations like skiing barefoot. Harmon A. Smith gets inducted into the Massachusetts Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame. (Smith is the second coach to be inducted.)
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| Harmon A. Smith |
1963: Joseph McCue drowns at Smith's Beach on July 7. (See story below)
1964: Thieves break into the Smith Beach Cafe on May 20 and walk away with money and liquor valued at around $60. (They are later arrested and sentenced to jail.)
1966: The Commonwealth of Massachusetts notifies the owners of Smith's Beach that it plans to take the property, about 15+ acres, due to nonpayment of taxes. Twenty-two-year-old fashion designer Barbara Baiardi, a daughter of the owner of Smith's Beach, establishes her "Capes for Men" business on December 4. (Actor Louis Pell got the idea for making capes because he wore one while acting in a movie and fell in love with the look and feel of the cape. He contacted area schools, and that is how he met the talented Barbara.)
1967: Capes for Men quickly rivals other fashion houses, including that of legendary designer Bill Blass. Barbara's designs are featured in Playboy and Esquire. Orders pour in, even one from Frank Sinatra.
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| 1969 Advertisement |
1969: "Capes for Men" appears in a fashion photoshoot for Vogue. Harmon Smith retires as an athletic coach at Agawam High School, ending his storied coaching career with a record of 138-55-15.
1972: Southwick Building Inspector Fermino Bennetti issues 14 building permits in October. The permits totaling $80,970 include $1,800 for a Penny Arcade to be built at Smith's Beach.
1977: Smith's Beach is open daily during the summer from noon until 2:00 a.m.
1978: Repeated acts of vandalism and arson shutter the nightclub at Smith's Beach.
1980: Vandalism plaques abandoned Smith's Beach. Smith's Beach Club sustains more damage by fire (arson). Left with no alternative, the Board of Health files a criminal complaint against the owners of Smith's Beach for failing to correct violations of the state sanitary code. The Hampden County Housing Court will hear the case, but it gets delayed when the owners' attorney is hospitalized after accidentally shooting himself in the leg. (Since August 1978, the building inspector and Board of Health have demanded that the owners demolish or secure the property.)
1981: Fire destroys the abandoned nightclub at Smith's Beach around midnight on August 15. Harmon Allen Smith dies in Mercy Hospital on the same day.
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| Barbara Baiardi w/ actor Louis Pell |
1983: Harmon Smith's second wife, Ernestine V. (Fay) Smith (b. October 7, 1919), dies on July 18. (She worked 12 years for the Agawam School District.)
1985: At a special town meeting on October 29, Southwick voters approve a $400,000 recreational facility consisting of a public beach, bathhouse, music pavilion, playground, and multi-purpose recreational courts to replace Smith's Beach, which the owner is offering to sell for $78,000. (The measure narrowly passes 80 to 65; the majority of funds to cover the project would come from a grant.)
1986: Out of the $9.8 million in grants it plans to award this year, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts allocates $72,000 to the Town of Southwick to purchase 15+ acres at Smith's Beach.
1992: Charles Ulysses Baiardi dies on April 29. (He owned and operated Smith's Beach for 25 years.)
2008: A reunion picnic honoring the memory of Coach Harmon Smith takes place on August 3 at the Polish American Club of Feeding Hills.
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Some of the live entertainment featured at Smith's Beach over the years:
Azure
The Banjo Band
Barnfire
Cadillac Ranch
Early Tymes
James Swamp Blues Band
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| July 1968 Advertisement |
Long Time Gone
New Smith Bros.
The Other Side
Public Animal
The Smith Brothers
South Station
Sweet Pie
Turkey Foot
Walnut Band
1963 Drowning
Some 200 bathers were celebrating the long Fourth of July holiday weekend at Smith's Beach on July 7, 1963, when tragedy struck.
Joseph McCue, a forty-six-year-old bachelor from Hartford, Connecticut, went to Smith's Beach with his sister Madeline McCue.
Around 2:30 p.m., a group of children swimming near McCue noticed he had gone missing and reported his disappearance to two of Smith's Beach's lifeguards.
Bathers located McCue's body within a few minutes and brought him to shore, where artificial respiration was performed, presumably by a lifeguard, until an ambulance arrived with a mechanical respirator. But their efforts were unsuccessful.
Southwick's medical examiner, Dr. Logie, determined the cause of death to be accidental drowning.
At the time, Smith Beach owner Charles Baiardi said it was the first fatality there in 23 years.
Joseph T. McCue: 1917 - July 7, 1963.
Charles U. Baiardi: Sept. 15, 1906 - Apr. 29, 1992.
Dr. Arthur J. Logie: Sept. 27, 1891 - Jul. 27, 1979.
1964 Break-In (rough draft notes)
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| 1937 Advertisement |
"A Penchant for Typewriters?"
Robert Griffin (17) of Southwick, Mass. pleaded guilty to morals charges in Westfield District Court in April of 1961.
The case was continued until a few days later.
He was charged with fornication and delinquency of a (16- year old) minor, who herself was charged with delinquency by reason of fornication and tried in a juvenile setting.
Robert was sentenced on April 22 to 30-days in the House of Corrections on the fornication charge. He was also given a six-month jail sentence for the delinquency charge.
The 16-year-old Southwick girl had her case continued until June 22. The outcome of her court appearance is unclear.
Robert and a Springfield man were arrested by Massachusetts State Police on June 11, 1963, after breaking into Van's Texaco (Southwick: College Highway at Route 168), where they took $960 worth of cash and goods. (The cash was only $7.) They also stole a 1956 sedan from Van's parking lot because the 1963 car they stole on Monday night got hung up on the hill behind Van's, and they couldn't get it unstuck.
State Police spotted the '56 sedan while on patrol. An 18-year-old girl from Springfield was with them at the time of the arrest, but she denied knowing anything about the car theft or break-in.
Robert spent time in an Oklahoma jail - and a Florida one, too for breaking and larceny in those states he also lived in. He lived in California for a short time too.
After being indicted for three 1964 burglaries in Granville and Southwick, he was finally tried in Hamden County Superior Court in June of 1969 (at the time, his address was Kissimmee, FL - he left the area before being brought to trial, and a warrant was issued in 1965).
He was picked up on the warrant and pleaded guilty to the charges.
Robert was sentenced to Concord Reformatory.
In Granville he broke into the historic drum manufacturer Noble and Cooley Co. on April 27, 1964. He stole a couple of typewriters along with a check writer and an adding machine.
He broke into the cafe at Smith's Beach in Southwick on May 20, and got away with under $100.00 in cash.
His third target was Howard Baxter Sand and Gravel Co. in Southwick. Breaking in on May 29, he stole two more typewriters, some canned goods, and some oil too.
Robert found himself back in court in April of 1968; charged with disturbing the peace he pleaded not guilty, and the case was continued. The outcome, however is unclear.
Robert is believed to have died in Florida in 1991 at age 47.
Robert J. Griffin: December 18, 1943 - April 28, 1991*.
*Dates not confirmed.
Edited Out/Author's Additional Research Notes
Robert is believed to have had a brother named Edward "Rabbit" Griffin who died in Florida in 2015.
The flawed legal system apparently worked against Robert on what seems to have been innocent relations between the two teens.
Charles Baiardi and his wife owned Smith's Beach c. 1941 to 1966.
Click Here for Smith's Beach Photos
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| Harmon and Evelyn, 1924 |