ASHLAND — Ashland Source’s feature on July 25, 2019, “Ashland Pool Party Makes a Splash,” along with all the recent hot summer weather, may have caused some local folks to wonder how long Ashland has had a public swimming pool at Brookside Park to enjoy, beat the heat, and swim in with a very large rubber ducky.
After Brookside Park was started from an old stone quarry in 1917, Ashlanders expressed the desire to build a public swimming pool.
Founders of the park, Frank Downs and the Rev. A. B. Robertson, sold the first stock for the pool in 1924. By 1927, there were 40 stockholders who invested a total of $22,000 to build the 150 foot x 60 foot pool and its pump system.
Thirty-five years after the completion of the first pool, Ashland City Council approved a modern replacement for the deteriorating original pool at a cost of $130,000 for a “pay as you go” type of public funding. Unvoted general obligation bonds were issued and the new pool opened on July 3, 1962, with 850 people taking advantage of the free swim that day.
In two years, it was paid off. The pool has since been renovated several times over the years.
Old rules for the swimming pool included:
Swimmers will change clothes in the bathhouse.
Swimmers will shower before swimming.
No street clothing allowed in the pool area except adults looking for children.
No one allowed to leave the pool area in a swimming suit.
Only swimming suits and cut-offs can be worn by swimmers.
Smoking is permitted in the concession area.
All persons will avoid dangerous, thoughtless and boisterous actions.
