The Olympic Pool
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Courtesy of James E. Casto
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Business was booming at Huntington Olympic Pool
when this
postcard
was taken in the 1960's.
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HUNTINGTON --
In 1945, a delegation of concerned citizens appeared before Huntington City
Council
and urged construction of a network of municipal swimming pools. Their
plea fell on deaf ears.
Five years
later, in 1950, a group of women, the Women's Inter-Club Council, began a
determined on behalf of building city pools. The women argued that the
construction
costs could be covered by a three-year tax levy, which could raise
an estimated
$400,000. City Council put the proposed levy on the ballot
and the
voters approved it by a margin of 3 to 1.
Plans were
drafted for construction of a large Olympic-sized pool at W. 12th Street and
Memorial Boulevard
and three smaller neighborhood pools -- at the A.D. Lewis
Playground in the Fairfield neighborhood,
on Everett Street in Guyandotte and a
site donated by the A.F. Thompson Manufacturing Co.,
in Westmoreland. Planning
and constructing the pools proved to be a lengthy process
but they finally
opened on Memorial Day, 1954, and were an immediate hit.
For decades,
a day at one of Huntington's pools was a summer-time "must" for the city's
youngsters.
Many teenagers virtually lived at the pools each summer. And even a
few young-at-heart
oldsters could be spotted among the crowd of fun-seekers.
But in the
mid-1990s attendance at Huntington's pools began a dramatic decline, as
recreation tastes changed.
It seemed that youngsters glued to their computers no
longer were interested in a day at the pool.
A consultant brought to town said
municipal pools nationwide were experiencing
similar attendance declines. Public
pools were "dinosaurs," he said.
The decline
in paid admissions couldn't have come at a worse time, as maintenance and repair
costs on
the aging pools were steadily increased. The result: a budget deficit
that grew larger each summer.
Beset by
lagging attendance and increased costs, the Olympic Pool was closed after the
2000 season.
A volunteer effort got it briefly reopen in 2004, but then it closed permanently
and was
demolished in 2006. Today, its former site is a vacant lot. Of
Huntington's
four city pools, only the A.D. Lewis pool survives.
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Note: This Article and picture appeared in the Herald-Dispatch Newspaper on Aug. 4, 2014
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