The Public Baths of New York City

Hamilton Fish Pool, 1936 (All images in this post courtesy NYC Dept of Parks & Recreation)

I’ve had the above image of a massive visually endless pool with dividing walkways strongly imprinted in my mind from a dream I had a couple years ago. I’m not sure if I’d seen this imagery before, or if I was pulling from something collective– but interesting to come across this again.

In the 1930′s floating baths on barges popped up around Manhattan as a service for the tenement residents. It’d seem like such a crazy idea if it popped back up today. We have a variation though.. a floating swimming pool in brooklyn bridge park!

Birds Eye View of Astoria Pool Bathers with Hell Gate Bridge in Background

The Aquazanies perform at Astoria Pool in Queens, early 1940s.

Check out the videos on the pools (including mccarren park pool) and more images on the NYC Parks and Recreation’s site:
http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_about/parks_history/pools.html

I stumbled onto all these while looking at possible shoot locations. This seems like a nice website to learn about the types of architecture in this city: http://www.nyc-architecture.com/GRP/GRP034.htm

Posted Thursday, January 28th, 2010 in category: Articles. Follow comments via RSS 2.0 feed.