Project type: Parks and Recreation, Swimming Pools
Started: 1936
Completed: 1937
Quality of Information: Very Good
Site Survival: Extant
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Description
NYC Parks describes the WPA’s role in developing the Highbridge Pool: “The Highbridge Pool and Recreation Center were built in 1936. The pool was the fifth of eleven city pools built with labor supplied by President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration (WPA). It opened during the hot summer of 1936, leading Fortune magazine to dub 1936 “the swimming pool year.””
In July 1937, Parks announced the further completion of “a new brick building, with copper roof… [to] be used as a concession stand to serve spectators and bathers at the swimming pool.”
Source notes
NYC Parks - Highbridge Park Race Place and Play Robert Moses and the WPA Swimming Pools in New York City Department of Parks, Press Release, July 13, 1936 Department of Parks, Press Release, July 17, 1937
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