Swimland (Columbus, Ohio)

USA / Ohio / Whitehall / Columbus, Ohio
 swimming pool, historical layer / disappeared object
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Old Whitehall community swimming pool built in the 1950s. They don't make pools this big anymore. When I was a kid, this place was like wading into the ocean. It closed sometime around 2000. Lot sof memories for post-war boomer kids and their parents. The place was run by the Case family -- they made this "ground zero" for summer lazing. There was a residence above the main office where they used to live in the summer. Tp the Case family -- wherever you guys are now, thanks for the memories!
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Coordinates:   39°57'49"N   82°52'28"W

Comments

  • On March 25TH,2007 I was informed Whitehall bought Swimland and will be reopened in summer of 2007!!!
  • Brandon: thanks for the Swim-land update. I swam on the swim team in '59 - '60 and guarded for a couple of years. I always wondered what happened to the pool. Mr. Jay Case was the best -- he really made the summers memorable.
  • I remember the day the pool opened. I was lucky enough to be hired by Jay Case that very first year - I worked in the check room. I was about 14 - we worked 6 days a week, long hours and made about $27 as I recall. Later that first year I was "promoted" to the snack shack. The next year I started in the snack shack and then took guard lessons. I was once again "promoted" to a life guard and did that until I moved away from Whitehall in 1959. Jay Case was wonderful to us - we worked long hours but he made us feel valued. We often had pizza after the pooled closed. His daughter, Janie, was a classmate of mine. I felt like a member of their extended family. Jay had been an FBI agent and I remember he would bring out his service revolver and shoot it sometimes - there were only woods in the area at the time. Great memories of my youth - I learned a lot about being responsible from Jay.
  • I went by there last week.. It's gone.. Nothing left. It's a big field.. Even the parking lot is gone. It was a sad day indeed.
  • This was the place to be in the summer. I remember swimming lessons. When you got to the advanced class you walked back to the adults only pool which was located in the notched out area in the bottom right of the above picture. The snack bar had the greatest fries ever and the typical candy of the day, Chik-o-sticks, Charleston Chew, Now-N-Later. After a day excercising in the sun you would go home and play Atari or better yet go to Swensens or Shakey's Pizza. Either way our kids don't realize how great summers were before the internet!
  • omg...was just thinking about swimland and wondered what happened to it. We would go there early in the day and stay until dinner time. Every once in a while we would get to go in the evening and stay until 9:00. I remember flippo the clown visiting one day...and oh...dancing in the little dance area on the other side of the building near the deep end. I flunked tapole 2 years in a row but I still had a lot of fun. Hated getting in the cold water for swim lessons in the early morming. Loved stopping to get ice cream for 10 cents at Friendlys. The snack shack had licorice wheels, jaw breakers for just pennies. So many memories.......sigh
  • I think we all have some amazing growing up memories about Swimland. Anyone have any idea how big that pool was or how I could find out?
  • My brothers and I spent the entire summer there, year after year. I rode my bike there in the morning for an ice cold water swim lesson, stayed all day with almost no food or money. Watched the kids bounce on the trampoline, and the swim team in the Olympic pool. Girls dancing to the Loco-motion with the jukebox near the deep end. Left for baseball games with my team in the WBBA. Got sooooo sunburned! Great times. Night swims. Fourth of July dances outside.
  • I wish it could of been restored to the way it was. The pool was great. The time flippo came someone wrote. The pool had a grate place for food,and candy. It was sad to see it in the shape it is. Shakeys pizza, was a treat too. Hamilton road is nothing like it was. The place was safe. I wish I could hit the lotto and restore it, or rebuild one. Too many good things to say,all good.
  • It was 50 meters [maybe yards] by 50 meters [maybe yards]. Mr. case had a brother that made a pool identical to Swimland by 'The Hilltop'. His brother made his 1 meter [or yard] longer each way. The back pool was a 25 yard lap pool.
  • Swimland was a huge part of my childhood. My sister and cousins and I went most days during the summer because we got a pool pass. My aunt practically lived there when she was a kid. I learned to swim there; my cousin taught me by slowly bringing me deeper and deeper into the water and showing me how to kick, and when I was older my aunt taught me how to swim underwater without holding my nose. It was a major feat the first time we went off the diving boards, especially the high dive. I remember every hour an announcement would come over the loudspeaker: "It is ... o'clock, everybody out. Time for a ten minute rest period." And everyone would scramble to the Snack Shack to get some sugar before we could get back in the water. Chick-s-sticks, Laffy Taffy, Mambas, Air Heads... Their pizza was cafeteria quality but it was a big treat to be able to buy one of the large sharing size ones. And we had ambitions of getting a job there when we were 14 because they would hire you that young. Paulsen was the head guy and everyone was worried he might kick us out if we acted up. The bathrooms were dank and questionable and you only went in there if you really couldn't hold it anymore. There was a large rotating door with metal bars to exit.
  • Does anyone have any photographs of Swimland? They are surprisingly rare. I'd even just like to have a picture of the logo on the sign out front. Thanks, Mark Westerville, Ohio
  • There was never a mention of reopening Swimland.
  • I remember Swimland and how enormous it was. I also remember the Case family. I believe they had a daughter named Kim.
  • Their daughter's name was Shelly. I swam on the swim team from 1959 to 1963 when we moved. I lived there every summer. We had practice at 7 am and I wouldn't go home until evening. Remember dancing by the jukebox. Not sure when they built the pool in back but that's where we practiced and had swim meets. I have pictures of the swim team. I loved that place. People still don't believe me when I tell them how big it was.
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This article was last modified 13 years ago