A Need to Open the Pools in Philadelphia
Amid a scorching hot summer , you can find Philadelphia residents finding great ways of cooling down — like they have done for centuries.
In November 2020, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced that John W. Hallahan’s Catholic Girls High School would be closing, marking the end of another of our City’s traditions. The announcement would mean that a fifty-year tradition of jumping into the fountain in Logan Square on the last day of school would also come to an end.
This week — during the midst of Philadelphia’s fifth heatwave of the year and temperatures approaching 100 degrees — Philadelphia residents protested right outside of the 12th and Cambria Recreation Center on last Monday. One of nine pools that remain closed in Philadelphia , the public outdoor swimming location at 12th and Cambria has been closed for six years.
In America , public pools didn’t begin as a source of recreation. They started as necessities — bathhouses intended to mitigate the spread of disease for working people. In the late 1800s, pools became popular in America as a source of recreation.
But Philadelphia’s history with public swimming dates long before that. Philadelphians would swim for leisure in the Schuylkill River even before the early 18th century, when people like Benjamin Franklin utilized it as a means of exercise. He would impact swimming programs for centuries to come. Floating (bathhouses) in the (Schuylkill) River date back around the same time as the American Civil War, in the shadow of the location of the Fairmount Waterworks and current Fairmount Park.
Philadelphia’s first public pool was started between 1883 and 1884 , and was the first of its kind in all of America. Located in Philadelphia (12th and Wharton)— the Wharton Street Baths provided an option for cleanliness for the City’s underprivileged. The Tacony Public Bathhouse would open up on (Gaskill) Street back as far as 1898 in Philly’s history 1898.
By the turn of the 20th century , Philadelphia provided its residents with some eight outdoor pools. Philadelphia’s Racquet Club was one of the first locations to install an (above-ground) pool approximately around the year 1907.
Today , the City of Philadelphia is down to merely some sixty public pools — all of which are managed by Philadelphia Parks and Recreation.
While many remain closed due to staff shortages or outstanding maintenance schedules — on a hot day in Philadelphia — you can probably find us at a pool.
If we aren’t swimming down the shore — that is.
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