The 115-acre (47 ha), 1.1-mile-long (1.8 km) beach is part of Pelham Bay Park and is situated on the western end of Long Island Sound.

The beach consists of a 13-section sandy shorefront, a hexagonal-block promenade, and a central pavilion with food stores and specialty shops.

The recreational facilities include two playgrounds, two picnic areas, a large parking lot, and 26 courts for basketball, volleyball, and handball.

Orchard Beach was built as part of Pelham Bay Park and was originally located on the eastern shore of Rodman's Neck peninsula.

[6] The 1.1-mile-long (1.8 km), 115-acre (47 ha)[7] beach faces the Long Island Sound and is laid out in a crescent shape with a width of 200 feet (61 m) during high tide.

[8] The modern beach was designed by Aymar Embury II, working with consulting landscape architects Gilmore David Clarke and Michael Rapuano.

[11] When the beach opened it contained a pavilion with two bathhouses, as well as a cafeteria, a small-boat lagoon, a 5,400-person locker and dressing facility, and two parking lots with a collective 8,000 spots.

[1][15] South of the beach is a 25-acre (10 ha) meadow that hosts the only known population of the moth species Amphipoea erepta ryensis.

The center of the plaza originally had a large fountain, which was removed in 1941 and replaced with a compass made of granite, bluestone, and slate.

At the eastern end of the plaza is a curving concrete wall, with two staircases to the north and south, which lead to a lower terrace and the beachfront promenade.

[13] The lower terrace level contains concession windows beneath the curved wall of the raised plaza.

Adjacent to each concourse are one-story concrete buildings, which originally distributed towels, bathing suits, and other swim gear.

[2][35][36][37] At the time, Orchard Beach was a tiny recreational area on the northeast tip of Rodman's Neck.

[38] Orchard Beach was extended by 400 feet (120 m) that year, doubling capacity, and a "comfort station" or restroom was added.

[10] The current Orchard Beach recreational area was created through the efforts of Robert Moses in 1934, and was built along with the Split Rock golf course.

[40] Immediately after his position was announced, Moses ordered engineers to inventory every park in the city to see what needed renovating.

[41] He devised plans for a new Orchard Beach recreation area after he saw the popularity of the Hunter Island campsite.

[2] At the time, the beach was a narrow sand bar connecting Hunter Island and Rodman's Neck.

The retaining wall frequently flooded at high tide, which made the sand bar effectively unusable most of the time.

[43] The beach would be reconstructed through the Works Progress Administration (WPA) under the 1930s New Deal program, along with another project to construct the nearby Pelham Bay Golf Course.

[51] The beach project involved filling in approximately 110 acres (45 ha) of LeRoy's and Pelham Bays with landfill,[21] followed by a total of 4,000,000 cubic yards (3,100,000 m3) of sand brought by barge from Sandy Hook, New Jersey, and the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens.

[52][53] Moses had originally wanted to use sand for the new land, but thought that waste from the New York City Department of Sanitation would be cheaper to use, so the material of choice was switched to landfill.

[65] A proposal for a 3,300-seat outdoor theater at Pelham Bay Park, replacing Orchard Beach's northern locker facility, was canceled in 1974 due to community opposition.

After the renovation, the pavilions contained some shops and fast food, with a nature center and museum planned for the buildings.

[73] In the mid-2000s, as part of the city's ultimately unsuccessful bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics, several facilities in Pelham Bay Park were proposed for upgrades.

[87][88] After the parking lot flooded during a minor rainstorm that October, the migrant center was relocated to Randalls Island.

[92] The New York City Subway's Pelham Bay Park station, serving the 6 and <6>​ trains, is across the Hutchinson River.