Friday,
July 1, 2022
9:30am
When "Swim time!" rang out over the loudspeaker for the very first time on Sunday, August 15, 1954, Worthington families could finally take the plunge in their own community pool.
Since 1952, financial and political challenges had complicated the project for Swim-inc. (later Swiminc), the nonprofit organization that built the pool. Swim-inc. would need to raise $150,000 from the 3,500 families then residing in the Worthington School District. And at a time when the new facility would require a substantial amount of water, Worthington and Columbus clashed over school and municipal boundaries, with Columbus holding hostage access to the water supply.
By early 1953, the Cardinal Boosters Athletic Association had organized Swim-inc. Local Chevrolet dealer Mahlon Maxton headed the pool fundraising campaign, reminding "Worthington News" readers, "This community has nothing to offer its youngsters in the recreation field other than minor playground sports."
"To swim, see a show, skate or do anything our kids must leave the neighborhood. Swim-inc. will provide a community recreation area where they can meet and play safely. When youngsters have little or nothing to occupy them they often end up in trouble. This is that ounce of prevention we need in this community to head off that looming threat of juvenile delinquency," Maxton said.
That summer, Worthington children had to travel out of the village to learn to swim. The Worthington Board of Education sponsored swimming classes at Columbus-area pools-- six weeks of instruction for the 350 children attending Sharon, Homedale and St. Michael’s schools at the Olympic pool in Clintonville, while 75 children took lessons at Mt. Air pool on Olentangy River Road north of Worthington and 125 children swam at Glengarry pool on Cleveland Avenue in Westerville.
Swim-inc’s ambitious fundraising campaign launched in May 1953 with a goal of $150,000 and the pool to be constructed by the end of the summer. The plan envisioned a 60- by 163-foot pool with an extended diving bay and a separate wading pool for toddlers. Structures would include bath houses, a first-aid room, restrooms and outdoor shower heads. The site would also offer badminton courts, handball courts and a basketball court. The pool complex would be built parallel to Dublin-Granville Road west of the high school on land owned by the school district.
The campaign for the pool kicked off on Memorial Day weekend, with proposed parades in six areas of the school district. Children were encouraged to dress in their swimsuits and "march." The following day, a float with "soft music for the ears and soft skin for the eyes" featuring several "pretty Worthington girls" clad in swimsuits, would travel the district accompanied by members of the Worthington band, according to event organizer Jane Law. Mahlon Maxton would install a decorative gauge atop the Maxton Chevrolet building to chart the progress of the drive. At the time, Maxton’s car showroom was located on the northeast corner of New England Avenue and High Street, the commercial center of Worthington.
School district residents were asked to pledge $100 or more, and would receive non-interest-bearing bonds in return. Bondholders would receive a discount on season memberships: bondholders would pay $20, while non-bondholders paid $30.
By mid-August 1953, the campaign had raised about two-thirds of the needed funds. Fundraising would continue in September with the goal of a completed swimming pool in time for summer 1954.
As the village celebrated its sesquicentennial, local politics looked concerningly unpredictable. Columbus and Worthington tussled over Sharon Township annexations, school district boundaries and access to water, spurred by rapid population growth.
According to Swim-inc., the pool would be operated for residents of the Worthington School District. At the time, the district boundaries extended from the Delaware County line south to the Morse-Bethel Road corridor. The eastern edge included subdivisions such as Colonial Hills, Chaseland and Sharon Heights. To the west, Indian Hills and other subdivisions off Godown Road were also part of the district.
However, pool membership eligibility was suddenly called into question in the wake of the contentious November 1954 elections, in which Colonial Hills and portions of the south end of Sharon Township sought to annex into Worthington instead of Columbus. Colonial Hills joined Worthington, but Columbus claimed Chaseland and all the residential area south to Morse Road, encompassing the tax-rich Graceland shopping center and removing these areas from the Worthington School District. Fundraisers for Swim-inc. hastened to reassure residents that anyone currently living in the Worthington School District who pledged money to the pool would be permitted to use it, even if the area where they lived was later annexed to Columbus.
And Swim-inc. (now Swiminc in the "Worthington News") had other worries-- namely water for the pool. In 1953, the village of Worthington got its water from wells drilled near the Olentangy River on the school property. A pumping station located on Dublin-Granville Road adjacent to the pool site sent the water uphill to a tower just east of High Street. However, the village experienced periodic water shortages and had an agreement to purchase water from Columbus as needed. In February 1954, as the contentious annexation issue heated up, Columbus threatened to cut off water to the Colonial Hills subdivision if its residents voted to join Worthington. Furthermore, Columbus refused to guarantee to supply the extra water Worthington would need if it annexed Colonial Hills. Worthington’s contract with Columbus was not fully resolved until 1958, when Columbus took over the operation of the Worthington water system.
Fundraising for the pool continued through the 1953-1954 school year. In May 1954, Dow Nelson, the Worthington High School football coach, was hired as pool manager. On June 3, the V.N. Holderman & Sons construction company broke ground on the new pool site. Vernon Holderman was a Worthington resident and president of the largest highway construction company in Ohio.
The pool opened at last on August 15, 1954, and 575 people attended that first day. There was a demonstration by Miller Anderson, a diving champion at Ohio State. Five lifeguards were on duty on weekends and four on weekdays, as the pool stayed open through the last weeks of summer vacation.
The completed pool held 300,000 gallons of water, which was re-filtered onsite every eight hours in an underground filtering plant. The finished pool was 120 feet in length and 50 feet wide, except at the deep end where the diving bay extended the width to 82 feet.
The site’s master plan also envisioned badminton, basketball and tennis courts, but it is not clear if they were ever built.
Today, the original pool is the middle of three outdoor pools on the site, and Swiminc still supports the Worthington pools.
