The Forgotten History Of The Swimmobile
Who among us hasn’t suffered through a long, hot summer day and wished a pool would magically appear and offer some relief? It may seem like a pipe dream, but at one point, there were actually swimmobiles, mobile swimming pools that traveled to neighborhoods with no beach or pool and offered kids the chance to splash around and cool off. The Rochester, New York Democrat & Chronicle reminisced about the city’s old swimmobile, which reportedly looked like a halved truck semi-trailer. It was hauled to various locations around town where city recreation workers would fill the pool with water from fire hydrants, leave it in place for the day, and then haul it away again to prepare it for its next destination. Rochester seems to have been a mecca for temporary swimming pools — the city also had several porta-pools that would stay in one place for longer periods of time.
When Rochester premiered its swimmobile in 1967, the Democrat & Chronicle credited Recreation Bureau Director Joseph Caverly for inventing the concept which then spread to other cities, but other locales also claimed to have the first or concurrent swimmobiles. Summer activities had been few and far between for Rochester children and Caverly took on the issue as a pet project, wanting to provide the opportunity to swim to those who hadn’t experienced pools. Said Caverly, “Some children are too timid to go to the school pools, and after we get their ‘feet wet’ and they find it’s fun, they take right to the regular pools.”
Swimmobiles brought pools to eager swimmers
As reported by the Democrat & Chronicle, the swimmobile had filtration and chlorination systems, was about three to four feet deep, and could accommodate about twelve kids at a time, or up to 150 in a day. The swimmobile continued making its annual rounds until the early 1980s, at which point it was moved to a playground and remained there for another five years.
Other cities had their own swimmobiles, including New York City and Detroit. The New York Times wrote about the city’s many swimming pool options in 1976, noting that in addition to the traditional, stationary pools found in parks, YMCAs, hotels, apartment buildings, and schools, the Department of Parks and Recreation owned five mobile pools. Recreation workers towed the 15-by-40 feet pools to different destinations each day from July 12 through September 2 between 11:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. Per Director of Recreation Jerry Demers, “We take the pools to parks or streets that have hydrants and make the arrangements through local community organizations.”
According to the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, the city also had its share of temporary porta-pools, meant to provide pool access to underserved neighborhoods in all five boroughs. In 1972, there were 74 mini-pools around New York City; as more traditional pools were built, they were phased out but 17 remain in use today. Perhaps the person who wrote this scene from “The Simpsons,” available on YouTube, in which Springfield briefly got its own pool-mobile enjoyed some mobile swimming during the golden age of the swimmobile.
252 thoughts on “The Forgotten History Of The Swimmobile”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Here Is Why Some Scholars Think God Had A Wife
The Deadly Heat Waves Of The Turn Of The 20th Century
The Noah's Flood Theory That Would Change Everything
Does Wyoming Have An Epidemic Of Missing Women?
How Many People Are Actually Citizens Of Vatican City?
This Theory Connects Atlantis And The Bermuda Triangle
Why Many Believed Benjamin Franklin Was Actually A British Spy
Here's How Small A Hole Can Be For An Octopus To Escape
Celebrities Who Have Been Involved In The Occult
What Happens When No One Claims A Dead Body?
This piece of writing will help the internet users for creating new weblog or even a blog from start to end.
Do you mind if I quote a couple of your posts as long as I provide credit and sources back to your site? My blog site is in the very same area of interest as yours and my visitors would truly benefit from a lot of the information you present here. Please let me know if this alright with you. Many thanks!
If you want to improve your experience only keep visiting this web site and be updated with the most up-to-date information posted here.
Excellent post. I used to be checking continuously this blog and I am inspired! Very useful information specially the final part 🙂 I deal with such info a lot. I used to be seeking this particular info for a long timelong time. Thank you and good luck.
Really no matter if someone doesn’t understand then its up to other viewers that they will help, so here it occurs.
Im not that much of a online reader to be honest but your blogs really nice, keep it up! I’ll go ahead and bookmark your site to come back in the future. Cheers
Hi there, i read your blog occasionally and i own a similar one and i was just wondering if you get a lot of spam responses? If so how do you reduce it, any plugin or anything you can advise? I get so much lately it’s driving me mad so any help is very much appreciated.
It’s actually very complex in this full of activity life to listen news on TV, thus I simply use web for that purpose, and get the most up-to-date news.
I like the valuable information you supply for your articles. I will bookmark your weblog and test again here frequently. I am moderately certain I will be informed many new stuff right here! Good luck for the following!
You’ve made some decent points there. I looked on the web to find out more about the issue and found most individuals will go along with your views on this website.
Great info. Lucky me I found your site by accident (stumbleupon). I have book marked it for later!
My programmer is trying to persuade me to move to .net from PHP. I have always disliked the idea because of the expenses. But he’s tryiong none the less. I’ve been using Movable-type on numerous websites for about a year and am nervous about switching to another platform. I have heard very good things about blogengine.net. Is there a way I can transfer all my wordpress content into it? Any kind of help would be really appreciated!