Days Gone By
Perhaps it’s just coincidental, but with all the recent discussion about the possibility of a community pool in Sea Isle City, this past June 27 marked the 60th anniversary of the grand opening of the Sea Isle Swim Club.
Located on Ocean Drive from 63rd Street to 65th Street, this pool wasn’t a public development – just the opposite. A project of Freda Development, the Sea Isle Swim Club boasted assets that surely made it the finest outdoor swim club in New Jersey. Developers believed that it was among the largest outdoor pools in the country. Aside from an Olympic-sized swimming area, it featured a separate children’s pool and a separate diving pool with high and low boards and substantially deeper water, as well as water-infused sliding boards. There were also locker facilities for men, women and children; a recreation area that featured handball courts; shuffleboard, ping-pong tables and a miniature golf course. The pool also had cabana seating areas. And management promised a qualified lifeguard would be on duty whenever the pool was open for swimming.
Memberships, which were sold through Freda Development, allowed for up to seven members of a family to utilize the facilities. Swimmers were required to have a club-issued tag – the forerunner of beach tags?
The pool which was scheduled for completion by May 1, 1959, officially opened at 9am on Saturday, June 27, 1959. It was constructed by Steel Pool and Fabricators of Monticello, N.Y., at an estimated cost of $147,000. To put that number in perspective, with buying power in 2019, that $147,000 in 1959 would be the equivalent of approximately $1.3 million today.
If You Have A Photo From The Past Send It To Us: Days Gone By, PO BOX 134, Avalon NJ 08202 - OR - Email info@seaisletimes.com