Brooklyn Wading Pool: 1942

The Red Hook pool that is under discussion here (not the wading pool shown above) today is not filled with some of the things that were asserted below. Rather, it is filled with water. Clean water. And people. A diverse group of families, to be specific.

The wading pool is gone. There is no mention of it in the NYC Parks Department web site. The Red Hook swimming pool is still a going concern. It is not filled with broken glass, litter, crack vials, or shell casings. Lost World, I don't know where you're from, but I can tell you that Red Hook today bears almost no resemblance to the red Hook of 20, or even 10 years ago. The projects are still there, and yes, they still suck. The rest of the neighborhood is fast becoming quite the desirable residential neighborhood.

Can't help you with any information about the wading pool. The Red Hook Swimming Pool is still going and is on Lorraine Street.

For those of us who've not lived in an area where such things are common---what exactly is the difference between a tenement and a housing project, and is a tenement just the same as a cheap, seedy apartment? Why should one be more prone to foster crime than another?

Shake your heads all you want, and keep telling yourselves that the inner city of today is a wonderful place to be. Should you actually drive through it--as I do daily in places like Trenton, Jersey City, Newark, and Paterson NJ--you might think differently, should you choose to take your blinkers off, that is. The locals, I'm sure, would love to make your acquaintance.

I was born in Red Hook in 1944 and lived there for several years. My aunt lived until sometime in the 70s or 80s. I recognize the look of the building in the background, but neither I nor my older brother remember the wading pool. What street was it on? We lived on Henry Street. We also remember a regular pool very close (I think on it was on Lorraine Street). There was also a park with a pool with sprinklers.

Anyone remember the Clinton Movie theatre?

In 1942, when this picture was taken, we as a society, still thought that we could solve poverty by creating consolidated housing projects like the one shown. At their best, resources like this pool were available to kids who might otherwise be swimming in the polluted waters of New York Harbor. But sadly, in the 65 years since, we have discovered that this sort of project actually tends to foster more crime, and can create more abject forms of poverty than the tenaments they replaced. Hence an earlier poster's "crack vials and shell casings", which doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the color of the people living there. I think Red Hook is pretty racially mixed right now.

Charlene, the satellite view you used is off by a few blocks. The pool is still there but a few blocks east.

it has to do with that the original poster believed it to now be a high crime high drug use area.(shakes head as well)

A satellite view of the area shows some dark square areas surrounded by trees, possibly basketball courts? The apartment blocks are still there, southwest of the park but still on the same block.

I suppose the "crack vials and shell casings" comment has to do with the fact that the neighbourhood, which was once white, is now mainly black. (shakes head)

I assume this pool was in Red Hook Park, but It's not there at all now.

I ride my bicycle through this area all the time and haven't lost a tire to empty crack vials or shell casings.

Instead of water, that pool is likely filled today with empty crack vials and shell casings.