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Friday, January 20, 2012

Franklin Glass Swimming Pool ~ 1938

Text under the above picture: 
The Franklin Glass Beneficial association's new recreational center at the city limits on Ziegler Ave. extension road, have provided cooling touches to the brows of many a feverish youngster. Above is shown the swimming pool which has been rebuilt this year. The water is 10 feet deep at its greatest depth. A new chlorinenator keeps the water pure at all times. The above picture was snapped on a recent hot afternoon.
Thanks: Bill May

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

My guess is that it closed do to the Polio scare in mid 1940's where it was thought kids got polio from swimming in swimming pools?

Robert said...

This must have been great for South Side kids. Isn't there a ball field out there now?

Anonymous said...

I don't know if this pool was a company perk,I'd like to think so. Like Armco park,golf course,picnic movies etc. It seems like forever ago when companies cared for employees and loyalty was a two way street,people not labor cost. And some would say it's better now.

Susan said...

I was born in 1943 so the pool wasn't open but I do remember it being over the fence from the Southside playground ball field. It was very daring and rebellious to climb over that fence. The story was there was acid in the water and would burn your skin off if you got one drop on you! We braved the threat of acid to gather big chunks of beautiful green glass. I wish I had kept some of that glass. Great memory. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Do you mean it was located over the fence where the empty ball field sits on Ziegler before you get the Franklin Glass site. This is assuming you are going down Ziegler from Center Avenue heading towards Herman?

Anonymous said...

The original at the site was donated by John V. Ritts. His home sits at the corner of N. McKean and East Fulton and contains the big tower. John V. owned the land and created it free of charge for the kids of the southside. The current Ritts Park was also given by his son Elias as a memorial to his father. It is too bad the Sediwick's (Armstrong Cable) do not have the same benovelonce as the Ritts family. The Ritts' were also the financial power behind all three YMCAs in Butler. They looked to benefit their community and make it better and not just suck the money out like the Sedwick's.

Anonymous said...

hmmmmm another class envy lib !

Anonymous said...

now people like the Sedwick's say "Let the government do it with government grants" So, I am hardly the left wing lib. I think you must be the lib looking to the government to improve your community and not the people in that community with the resources to do it.

Anonymous said...

To much is given, much is expected.
I agree we can expect nothing from the Sedwick's who by the way have a monopoly on the cable industry in Butler.

It is easy to be rich when the government gives you sole ownership of the only cable company in a town!

Anonymous said...

I remember the pool was built on Ziegler Ave down past the "sawbelly" on the other side of the street close to the city limits. In the early 50's a boy drowned in the remains of the pool.

Anonymous said...

"Sonny" Jenkins drowned on June 1, 1946 when he fell of his raft in the abandoned pool. They dynamited the one end in order to recover his body.

Frank [Denny] Rockenstein said...

re: the swimming pool (jenkins pool) to the south side kids.The post referring to the south side playground fence and the pool behind it is not jenkins pool. It was some kind of retention pool for plant operations.Jenkins pool is at the end of ziegler on a road on the right side just before the coal run (glasshouse crick) bridge.

It is about 50 yards up the road on the right. I was just there yesterday. The pool appears today as a pond and the old concrete walls are no longer evident. The road is now gated as a substation of some sort is being constructed. If you continue up the road
you will see four large tanks on the right. Possibly used to hold the water to fill and refresh the pool.

Using google earth I was able to see the rectangular shape which measured 30 x 70. I had calculated that the pool held 80,000 gallons based on an average depth of 5 feet but after finding out that the max depth was 10 feet I would say 100,00 is probably a better
estimate.
If you continue up the road to what we called the quicksand you would not recognize it today. The two fingers of water are still there but the white sand plain is totally over grown with weeds.
I'm still searching for the two shafts which have always puzzled me as to their purpose.
I am also confused as to how Ritz figures in to this. Also the old railroad bridge to the
glass house over the creek has finally been rebuilt after 10 years of red tape by the butler freeport rails to trails council and the trail is finally complete.

I was one of the south side kids and remember the steam locomotive that stopped for me and gave me a ride down the tracks and let me throw coal into the boiler and blow the whistle. Those days are gone forever but I can still go back and relive the memories.

Unknown said...

Yes I remember hanging there as a kid a lot.