Asser Levy Recreation Center Pools – New York NY

Description

On May 31, 1938, the Department of Parks announced “that plans were being prepared for the renovation of nine public bath houses transferred to them from the jurisdiction of the Borough President of Manhattan.” The improvements were to be done “with relief labor under the supervision of the Works Progress Administration and inspected by the Department of Parks.”

At what is now the Asser Levy Recreation Center, the renovations included the construction of two new swimming pools:

“At 23rd Street and Avenue A where there is adequate vacant city-owned land available, a new outdoor swimming pool, 125 ft. long x 50 ft. wide and 4 ft. 6 inches deep, will be provided, as well as a separate diving pool approximately 30 ft. x 60 ft. and 9 ft. deep. These pools will supplement the present indoor one which will remain in use and provide an essential facility for summer bathing in the midtown East Side congested district.”

These pools are still in existence, though the NYC Parks site today records the pools as being constructed in 1936. Both the indoor and outdoor pools were extensively renovated in 1988 to 1990.