Evening star., 1935-03-18
L TO 19NEW POOLS.
URGED IN DISTRICT.
Miss SybiI Baker Declares
Present Standard for
City Is Low.

If Washington is to have adequate
public bathing facilities. II additional
swimming pools must be built in scat
tered locations of the District, Miss
Sibyl Baker, supervisor Of Fairgrounds.
declared today. The city has need of
19 in all, she said.
Miss Baker declared Washington's
present swimming pool facilities are
very far below the standard that
should prevail" and voiced hope that
means can be found at an early date
for expansion of the program.
On the basis of population and
public needs, the National Capital
should have 10 swimming pools in all,
she said The District now has but 8,
including those under the parks office
as we'll as the three under jurisdic-
ton of the Playground Department.
Some Sections Neglected.
Some sections of the city have no
swimming facilities at all, and others
are but inadequately served" she said.
Furthermore, some of the existing
pools under jurisdiction of the District
government are not only inadequate
in size, but are in such condition they
should be replaced"
Some of the II pools Miss Baker
proposes would be of small size and
would be placed in Fairgrounds to
serve a residential community. She
believes such a diversified program
would better serve the whole Capital
than fewer number of very large
bathing places.
Five areas included in such a pro-
gram Miss Baker listed in the follow
ing order of priority of need:
The Potomac Park region, where a
new pool should be built to replace the
three combined pools which appear
destined to be wiped out because of
Federal development plans. This
would serve large area of the South
west and lower central sections of the
city. Miss Baker reports the present
pools there had an attendance of
$4,000 last Summer.
Anacostia Included.
The Anacostia section, which now
lacks any such free recreation plant.
The Kingman Lake area in the
Northeast, near the location of the
large colored educational plant which
is being developed by the District.
The section near the Taft Junior
High School near South Dakota ave-
,our OIti,,pu cSvaof
The area west of Rock Greek, pos
sibly near woodrow Wilson High
School near Nebraska avenue and
Thirty-ninth street.
Playground officials. preparing sug-
gestions for public works under the
proposed new work relief program. also
call attention to the need of a SWIM
ming pool and wading pools for the
Hoover Recreation Center, Second
and N streets; for a swimming pool
for the Barry Farms playground in
Anacostia, and for replacement of the
present old pool at the Rosedale play
ground, Seventeenth and Kramer
streets northeast.
Location Of Pools.
The District now has swimming
pools at the following places, under
jurisdiction of the District Playground
Department: The Georgetown play
ground, Thirty-third street and Volta
place; Rosedale playground, the How
ard playground, Fifth and w streets,
and those near the Washington Monu-
ment.
In addition there are the following
under jurisdiction of the National
Parks office: The new pool built last
wear under the civil works program at
the Takoma Recreation Center, the
Mckinley pool at First street and
Lincoln road northeast, the Francis
pool at Twenty-flfth and N streets
and the new pool at the Banneker
Recreation Center near Howard Uni
verSity.
The great popularity Of the present
swimming plants is illustrated in the
annual report of the Playground De-
partment. which shows that the to-
tai attendance last year at the pools
under is Jurisdiction was 1873, ,448. The
attendance at the IL wading pools
was 43,762. Free swimming lessons
were given to 7,41o persons.
These figures do not include the
many hundreds of playground boys