Bathhouses Sites

Pachaug State Forest is the largest forest in Connecticut. After the land was acquired by the state, "Laborers from New Deal programs such as the ... Civilian Conservation Corps then turned these newly acquired lands into usable open space ..." The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)’s Camp Lonergan, which housed Company #179, was stationed at Pachaug State Forest in Voluntown, Connecticut. The camp was established June 6, 1933 and was discontinued May 28, 1942. A CCC Museum exhibit discusses the camp's accomplishments. "The largest state forest in Connecticut was home to a camp named after Senator Augustine Lonergan. A shingle mill was set up near...

The Civil Works Administration built the Alpine Pavilion in Palisades Interstate Park in Alpine NJ. Built in 1934 and used as a bathhouse until 1944, the Pavilion was restored in 2016 and is used for picnics and gatherings.

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) built the Bloomer's Beach Bathhouse and Refreshment Stand in the Palisades Interstate Park in Englewood Cliffs NJ. The Palisades Interstate Park Bathhouse served swimmers in the Hudson River until swimming at the beach was terminated during World War II. Since then, the Bathhouse has fallen into ruin, but the refreshment stand remains. The CWA also built the picnic pavilion at the nearby Englewood Picnic Area. By the 1920s the Englewood Picnic Area and Boat Basin was a vigorous facility with swimming, boating basin, picnicking, and ferry service that brought visitors from upper Manhattan. New Deal workers added a snack bar...

Paris Mountain State Park was developed in large part by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). "CCC structures, including the Camp Buckhorn lodge, are listed on the National Register of Historic Places." The state park on Paris Mountain was built in the 1930s by the Depression-era CCC. Sixteen other parks in the state of South Carolina were also created due to the work of the CCC. The land for the park was acquired in 1935 from the city of Greenville." CCC work included the development of the entrance, road construction, a bathhouse and an office, picnic facilities, staff residences, a gazebo, the development...

The "Jefferson Lions Club Swimming Pool located at the extreme west end of West Whelan Street, one block west of Highway 59 North, also known as North Walcott Street. The site today is occupied by the Jefferson Independent School District's Transportation Building and parking lot for its school bus fleet. It was constructed by the , sometime in the late 1930’s. It was originally part of a City Park Complex that ran from Tuttle Street to Ferris Street (now MLK), and from West Harrison Street north to the swimming pool. It included the old high school football field, a...

In 1936, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) set up camp at Pattison State Park in Superior, Wisconsin. Pattison State Park was named for Martin Pattison, a wealthy Superiorite who had purchased the land in 1918 and gave it to the state in order to preserve its resources. The land became a state park in 1920. At Camp Pattison, the Corpsmen of Company 3663 would improve the park from a miniscule natural area to the expansive work of conservation it is today. During its construction, the men of Camp Pattison transformed the park by clearing out and building trails and bridges, renovating...

The Pawnee bathhouse was built by the WPA in 1939: "The Pawnee Bath House, a WPA (Work Projects Administration) project built of hand-cut native stone with terraced stairway and landscaping, including a three acre lake for swimming, was originally intended to not only bring needed jobs for the area, but to also provide recreation for Pawnee and the surrounding communities. The project was an immediate success with the Grand Opening featuring a water carnival and dignitary visitation to include the Governor of Oklahoma along with the US WPA project coordinator. The bath house and swimming hole was a popular spot for...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) constructed a bath house at Phillips Pond in Voluntown, Connecticut. The exact location and status of the facility are presently unknown to Living New Deal.

The federal Works Progress Administration undertook a $93,900 project starting in 1935 to modernize and otherwise improve several public (now-former) bath facilities in Brooklyn, NY. The public baths at 1752 Pitkin Ave. were constructed in 1903; the baths closed in 1949 and the building is privately owned. The facilities identified as part of the WPA project were: 209 Wilson Ave. Municipal Baths, Coney Island Duffield Street Hicks Street Pitkin Ave. Huron St. Montrose Ave.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) developed Pokagon State Park into a fully-fledged recreational park in the 1930s, planting thousands of trees, building trails, establishing a group camp, and constructing park buildings, including a gatehouse, bath house (with beach), saddle barn, two-story shelter house, and more. CCC Company 556 occupied Camp SP-7 at Pokagon from 1934 until 1942. To enhance the outdoors experience, projects exhibited designs that were rustic and harmonious with their surroundings, using native materials and adhering to guidelines established through the National Park Service. Pokagon has been home to the longest running annual CCC reunion in the country and continues the...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built the bathhouse and beach at Pokagon State Park in Angola, Indiana, in 1938-39.   CCC 'boys' trucked endless loads of gravel from a deposit in another part of the park to create a swimming beach, as well as a fine gravel lake bottom.  This was accomplished by spreading a thick layer of gravel over the ice of the frozen lake where the beach was being created and letting it settle as the ice melted. The gabled frame bathhouse was completed in 1939. The beach and bathhouse are not marked as CCC, but there is now a...

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) enrollees completed the Potawatomi Inn bathhouse in 1935.  Records are sparse, so it is unclear whether CCC workers remodeled/completed a building begun by Civil Works Administration (CWA) in 1933-34, or the CCC constructed an entirely new bathhouse. The structure has been used to house boat rentals for several decades. The style is classified as Parks Rustic, although it is a very modest example. The bathhouse is not marked as CCC. But there is now a CCC Pocket Museum with exhibits in the old gatehouse and the Nature Center has an exhibit that lists all the structures CCC enrollees worked on.    

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) began construction on "a collegiate-sized pool with underwater lighting and an adjacent bath house" in 1936 at what is now Valdosta State University. The school was completed by the state in 1938.  The exact position of the pool on the campus is unknown to Living New Deal; the pool has since been replaced.

The Works Progress Administration built a Pool and Bathhouse in Weatherford OK. Contributor note: "As originally built in 1936, this was a flat-roofed brick building, with brick pilasters flanking the entrances. A bronze plaque on the bathhouse indicates the Weatherford Municipal Pool and the year 1996. We cannot confirm, but it appears that the pool and bathhouse were renovated in that year. Today, the pool is a very active source of summer recreation for the town. It is located at 600 N. Indiana in the Means Park area. The WPA bathhouse is far different from what it looked like before. It now has a...

Pounds Hollow was the first recreational site constructed for Shawnee National Forest. A dam, beach, bathhouse, boat dock, utility buildings, roads, and a caretakers house were constructed by CCC crews from Camp Cadiz.

This large and unusual WPA-built swimming pool was begun in September, 1936 and was scheduled to be complete within 6 months.  It has an unusual fan-shape for the main large pool and an adjacent shallow pool.  The bathhouse/dressing rooms are within the rock faced building to the east of the pool.  At this time, a chain link fence surrounds the pool, though it is doubtful that it did originally.  It has an extensive filter system on side of the hill above the pool.  The filter has an active sand filter with additional layers of rock and sand above it to...

A swimming pool and bathhouse at Pullen Park in Raleigh, North Carolina were constructed as part of a federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) project during the Great Depression. (ncsu.edu) The current status of the facility is unknown to Living New Deal.

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) provided funding and labor for construction of what was then known as the Queen City Pool and Pool House at Queen City Park in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The WPA supplied $100,000 of the $125,000 total cost of the construction project. The facility now serves as the Mildred Westervelt Warner Transportation Museum. Wikipedia: "Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright's apprentice Don Buel Schuyler, the Queen City Pool served the citizens of Tuscaloosa from 1943 through it closure in 1989. It was constructed as a ... Works Project Administration relief project of the Great Depression. The site features a poured concrete...

Montpelier's Recreation Field was developed as a New Deal project in 1938-9. The Public Works Administration (PWA) provided a $45,000 grant for the project, whose total cost was listed as $100,052. PWA Docket No. Vt. 1088-F. The facility was described in Annual Reports of the City of Montpelier. The 1939 report , detailed the park development's progress at that date: The Recreational Field ... is located on the Worcester Branch road, 1 2/5 miles from the corner of Main and State Street. The project consists of a Swimming Pool approximately 350 feet long, 150 feet wide and about 11 1/2 feet deep in the...

Shortly after the creation of Minneapolis’ park board in April 1883, the organization designated land for the future Riverside Park. Land was acquired by 1884 and the area was called Sixth Ward Park until 1885. Since then it has been called Riverside Park due to its position on the west bank of the Mississippi River. Later additions and expansions included a toboggan slide, playground equipment, basketball hoops, skating rink, tennis courts, and wading pool. The WPA completed a stone bathhouse in 1933 and built stone steps connecting the upper and lower levels of the park. As of fall 2013, the steps are...

"Repairing and painting of park board buildings, including band shells, bath houses, pavilions, bridges, residences, service buildings and play ground buildings in the following parks...Riverside Park."

The Civilian Conservation Corps built recreation facilities at the Robber's Cave State Park. "Located four miles north of Wilburton on State Highway 2, Robbers Cave State Park, originally Latimer State Park (name changed in 1936), encompasses more than eight thousand acres and includes three lakes and many tourist amenities... In 1933 Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Company 1825 was organized and located at the state game preserve. In 1935, under the supervision of the National Parks Service, the State Parks Division took control of the area. Between 1935 and 1941 CCC Company 1825 built a bathhouse, cabins, trails, group camps, shelters, and roads....

Construction on the pool started in 1938 as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt`s Depression-era Works Progress Administration. The park district furnished the materials, and workers were bused in by the government. The pool, completed in 1940, is the last WPA pool still in use and in its original condition in all of Illinois. WPA construction included a stone bathhouse with fireplace and open-beamed ceiling. Renovations in 2005 to bring the pool into compliance with current building codes retained the historic character of both the pool and bathhouse.

Saratoga Springs has been famous for its mineral waters, for bathing and drinking, for four centuries, and was known to native people long before that.  The town has a rich history of tourism, horse-racing and gambling, and its many springs have been developed commercially and heavily exploited by bottling companies.  In order to protect the springs from over-pumping, the area was declared a New York State Reservation in 1909. Dr. Simon Baruch, a leading exponent of hydrotherapy, guided the Spa's development in its early years.  In 1928, New York Governor Franklin Roosevelt established a commission to rehabilitate the springs, chaired by Bernard Baruch,...

The WPA built a bathing pavilion at Scarborough Beach. The precise location of the structure, if it remains, is unclear.

This large island park in Omro, Wisconsin was established in the early 20th century and improved by the federal Civil Works Administration (CWA) and Works Progress Administration (WPA) during the 1930s: "In 1933, an adult swimming pool and a children's wading pool were built using a mix of local money and federal C.W.A. funds, which was followed by the construction of a bathhouse and dock in 1939 using village and W.P.A. funds."  (www.omro-wi.com)

The bath house, or beach pavilion, was a cooperative effort between CCC and WPA workers. The structure was left unfinished at the start of World War II. Park employees were able to complete the pavilion in 1942.

"In the late 1800s, the Shannon Springs artesian well was used as a watering hole on the Chisholm Trail, bringing cattle from Texas to the railheads up north. This park was established at the site of these springs, at least during the first years of the 1900s, and perhaps before that. This is a 43-acre park with a very large lake, in which fishing is allowed. Evidence of the work of the WPA is seen everywhere. Low walls and drainage ditches made of native sandstone border the curving driveways. Occasional stone pillars bear the WPA engraving. Work was done between 1936...

"Shannon Springs Park is a large recreational area, constructed also by the WPA. With its ponds, playground, sports areas,and amphitheater, it is the center of many activities throughout the year. The large Christmas Light display in December brings tens of thousands. "The original swimming pool is gone, but the WPA-constructed bathhouse stands today. Built in 1935 with an appropriation of $11,479, this is a one-story concrete block building, with a Spanish Mission flavor. In 1987 when the building was added to the Oklahoma Landmark Database, the building was boarded up and in disrepair. Today, it has been refurbished, is painted...

"During the Great Depression, laborers from the Works Progress Administration constructed a swimming pool and bathhouse in Sheridan Park, and the park hosted a WPA Toy Loan Center and WPA outdoor theatrical performances. Several years later, workers from the Civilian Conservation Corps constructed jetties in Lake Michigan off Sheridan Park as well as a service road down the face of the bluff."

"The magnificent pavilion was built with relief labor in South Shore Park in 1933. It replaced an earlier bathhouse built in 1912. The park is located on the shore of Lake Michigan in the Bay View neighborhood of Milwaukee." --Milwaukee County Parks

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and Works Progress Administration (WPA) laborers worked together to build a bathhouse.  The project spanned from 1933 till 1941. The project was abandoned by the New Deal agencies at the onset of World War II. The project was eventually completed by park workers. The remodeled bathhouse now serves as the park's Nature Center.

The lake was developed by the WPA from a commercial sandpit and has functioned as Sterling's City Park since. A bathhouse and footbridge, plus stone, barrel-style entry markers, enhanced the setting. Notably, the 1955 movie Picnic featured Sterling Lake as a setting. Annually, Sterling Lake Park is the site of the community's Old Fashioned Fourth of July celebration.

The Sunbeam Hot Springs was greatly improved for public use by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).  In 1937, enrollees from the Clayton CCC Camp built a bathhouse on a walled, concrete platform overlooking the Salmon River, with two access stairways from the road above, a pump house (?), and a paved path down to the river. Bathers  could change in the bathhouse and proceed down the path to the river, where the hot springs water from the hillside mixes with river water. The bathhouse is not used today. An information panel next to the bathhouse reads: "The bathhouse was completed in 1937...

The Sunset Pier was built on Venice Beach in 1921 as a typical entertainment pier with dancing hall that was very common on the beach at the time. After various bankruptcies and owners, "he city took possession of the Sunset Pier during spring 1929 after the lease was canceled with the Electric Pier Company for non-payment of rent... However, in June the Parks and Recreation Commission decided to build a 64 x 160 foot municipal bathing pavilion on the pier. The pool, costing $20,000, could accommodate 3000 people and would have large sun rooms. Construction began by the end of...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built a swimming pool and bathhouse in Swenson Park in Spur TX. The pool was built between 1935 and 1937 and closed in 2009. A WPA marker in front of the bathhouse reads: "Works Progress Administration  1935-1937."

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built a swimming pool and a bathhouse at the north side of Parkersburg City Park. The project was completed in June 1936. The Wood County Historical Society published 1937 excerpts from The Parkersburg News periodical, attesting to the work carried out by the WPA in Parkersburg: "The Parkersburg News Feb. 2, 1937 Advance bath house project: Two crews of 30 men working on municipal swimming pool; to be completed Decoration Day The bath house at the municipal swimming pool in City Park is rapidly approaching completion. Installation of showers and other plumbing fixtures, together with construction of dressing booths remain to be...

In December 1936, Mayor R. G. Kryger received word that the city’s proposal for a swimming pool had been approved by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The proposed pool would measure 146 by 60 feet, and would be constructed of concrete. The project would also include a bath house measuring 32 by 68 feet and a filtration system. The WPA had committed $6,225.00 on labor and $1,809.50 on supplies and materials. The city of Neligh would be required to furnish materials and supplies in the amount of $6,275.91. The total cost was anticipated to be $14,510.41. Neligh would have to...

The city swimming pool in Macon was designed by Irwin Dunbar from Kirksville, MO.  It is still in use with the original wooden bathhouse.  Note the inverted u-shaped concrete elevations in the center of the pool for diving.  At one time, it was considered the largest pool in the state.

The pool and bathhouse were built in 1939 under the auspices of the federal Public Works Administration. Full restoration was carried out by the community from 1999 to 2007 at a cost of $265,000.