Pre-1926 American public beaches were either crude or commercialized, leaving no third model

Evidence

In 1926, public bathing beaches in America fell into one of two classifications: ill-equipped huddles of shabby, unpainted wooden bathhouses that contained nothing but toilets, showers and lockers; or “boardwalk beaches” such as Coney Island and Atlantic City, which had surrendered the beauty of their seascapes to roller coasters, weight-guessing games, blaring funhouses, bawling barkers and other carnival concessions. But Robert Moses wasn’t thinking of unpainted wood or carnivals. — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 975

Categorization

• XREF: Fits the reader’s established interest in how infrastructure innovation required imagining beyond existing categories.