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A visual history of swimming in Toronto
As the temperature creeps above the 30 degree mark, I often imagine what a nightmare it must have been to endure a heatwave in Toronto before the advent of air conditioning. Unlike today, when most of us who lack AC at home at least have it at work (or can impose upon more successful friends for a temporary cool down), the opportunities for reprieve back in the day were few and far between. Short of standing directly in front of fan or heading down into a dark basement, the only way to escape the heat was to hit a pool or the lake.
Perhaps it's not surprising then that the Toronto Archives is chock full of images of people bathing, as was the more common parlance a century ago. Whether it be on the Toronto Islands or at Sunnyside — two of the city's prime destinations for water-based activity — there are scores of images that demonstrate just how important public swimming was prior to around the 1970s or so, when more and more suburban homes were outfitted with private pools and air conditioning started to become more common in general.
Although I certainly wouldn't want to turn off the AC right now, there's something rather romantic and exhilarating about the prospect of getting so frustratingly hot that one must simply surround himself with water just to remain sane. In honour of that past reality, here's a little history of swimming in Toronto. May it remind you at once of the joys of air conditioning and what we lost when it became ubiquitous.
PHOTOS
YWCA, 1907
Swimming at Hanlan's Point, 1907
YWCA swimming class, 1908
Kew Beach, 1908
Scarborough Beach water chute, 1908
John Innes Pool and Recreation Centre, 1908
High Park Mineral Baths, 1911
High Park Mineral Baths, alternate angle
Private swimming pool, 1911
Sunnyside, 1912
Swimming in the Don, 1912
Life saving drill, 1914
Toronto Island Swim Race, 1914
YMCA Swimming Championships, 1915
Waterslide, 1920
Sunnyside, 1924
TTC Bathing Cars at Sunnyside, 1924
Toronto Ladies Swim Club, 1925
Sunnyside, 1926
Sunnyside, 1926
Humberside Collegiate pool, 1930s
CNE Marathon Swim, 1930
CNE Marathon Swim, 1930
Sunnyside, 1940s
Swimming in Brampton, 1930
Aqua Parade at Maple Leaf Gardens, 1940s
Aqua Parade, 1948
CNE Diver, 1950s
Marilyn Bell, practice swim in 1956
The suburban dream, 1960s
Northview Heights swimming pool, 1960s
Sunnyside / Gus Ryder, 1960s
Dovercourt Boys Club, 1960s
Photos from the Toronto Archives
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According to Mike Filey (long time Toronto historian) the pool at Sunnyside was always called 'the tank' by anyone and everyone who went there. Just a random tidbit of info
HOWEVER, now our Lake Ontario beaches are some of the cleanest! But try getting people to go swimming. Trust issues.
Besides, we built those factories and railway lines out of necessity, so that we could have a diversified economy, jobs and food for our families. Later, we moved those factories to China, and now all the nastiness takes place overseas.
I use the beaches all the time. Had a syringe brush up against my feet in the water at Cherry Beach two years ago, undoubtedly washed into the lake by storm sewers (along with countless tampon applicators, oddly). The trust issues are arguably well founded.
The High Park Mineral Baths were created at Clandeboye, the mansion of Toronto mayor George St. Leger, built in 1899, at 32 Gothic Avenue, north of High Park.
In 1907, the property was purchased by Dr. William McCormick who built a mineral bath sanitarium pool then a recreational pool with an Olympic-height diving board that was enjoyed by generations of young people into the 1960s.
Clandeboye eventually became the Strathcona Maternity Hospital and, ultimately, the condos one sees today, while the pools were closed to make way for the Bloor subway."
http://www.roncesvallesvillage.ca/?page_id=984
For some NYC context over a similar time period:
http://www.nycgovparks.org/about/history/pools
I was just at a preview of the rebuilt McCarren Park pool, and it is stunning. Sorry that old Sunnyside no longer exists as it would have been a comparable reno job.
"Ellis Avenue was a long, gradual hill with Lake Ontario spread out at its foot like a huge blue swimming pool. I had never been in a real swimming pool myself, but I had seen two of them at a distance. One was the Mineral Baths on Bloor Street, and the other was Sunnyside Bathing Pavilion.
The Mineral Baths were right opposite High Park. Willa said the twin pools used to be part of a hospital. A the Sunday School picnic all the kids lined up along the grassy banks and stared across Bloor Street at the lucky people diving from the tower and swishing down the slide into the gleaming mineral waters.
Sunnyside Bathing Pavilion was on the lakefront. We often strolled down the hot, treeless beach while our lunch was digesting and peered through the wire fence at the paying customers. I could never figure out why anybody would pay to swim in there when only a stone's throw away was glorious - free - Lake Ontario. Dad said they must have more money than brains. But Mum said she though it would be lovely to bathe in that pretty turquoise-blue water."
http://www.meetup.com/Toronto-Underwater-Hockey-Club