by elizabeth | August 12th, 2010
My friend Sarah Landreth and I set out for Staten Island by car. I have been to all of these pools by public transportation, but in order to get to all 4 of them in one day….. car was preferred!
Here’s Sarah’s review of the day, followed by photos and tidbits about each Staten Island gem!
Woman, I am exhausted. Staten Island takes a lot out of you. I would say that today’s highlights included the empty pool at Faber Park, that kid Caleil at West Brighton showing us his moves, the vastness and sunshine of Lyons Pool, the bikini fashions of Tottenville, and the enormous sandwiches at the Richmond Diner – especially your turkey club, which was so big the middle section kept thinking it could escape without your noticing. I also loved what we got to learn about Staten Island. As a proud alumna of the NYC Dept of Parks & Recreation’s historic houses division, I thought I knew some stuff (and I know I impressed you with my account of the island’s geological uniqueness, especially the bit about the poisonous rock), but I got schooled by some of the informational signage. Who knew that Faber Park was named for the Faber & Faber Fabers of lead-pencil fame? How would I ever have discovered that horseshoe crabs are more closely related to scorpions than to crabs, or that their blood is used in FDA tests, or that we make contact lenses out of them, if we had not visited their nesting place on New York State’s southernmost beach, at Conference House Park?
Also, it is useful to know that the Manhattan Bridge exit off the BQE puts you right on the Manhattan Bridge. If I ever learn to drive a car, I will keep this in mind.
In all – 4 pools, 4 stars. Thanks for a great day!
POOL # 1
My favorite pool (still!): Faber pool. Here is a nice photo of the pool & history of the property. I love this pool because it is tucked right next to the river under the Bayonne Bridge. You can literally be hanging out in the pool watching tugboats chug by. Even with kids asking to borrow my goggles, it is an oasis!
POOL # 2
This pool was cold! After dunking, we spent most of our time here watching our new friend Caleil demonstrate his backflip moves while avoiding his brother’s indiscriminate, boisterous wrath.
West Brighton pool is located in Corporal Thompson Park.
POOL # 3
Lyons pool is a symbol of Robert Moses’s influence on park design. It’s an Olympic-size WPA pool from 1936, and the locker rooms are massive! There was once a diving pool here, but now it’s simply a dragonfly breeding ground – we saw some gorgeous ones!
It’s walking distance from the Staten Island Ferry terminal, but it’s still a bit hard to find. Once you make it to the Victory Boulevard footbridge, you’re nearly there…
POOL # 4
Tottenville pool lies at the very southern tip of Staten Island (and therefore of New York State), and was filled with families on this hot afternoon. Two girls used me as the finish line to their swimming race: “Tag the lady and come back here!” I love the primary colored fence, and how suburban everything is around it.
After we swam, Sarah took me to Conference House Park, just down the road at the very tip, where Ben Franklin and John Adams tried to avert the Revolutionary War. The house was built around 1680 (!) and the park features a lookout to New Jersey, which is startlingly close.
STATUS: 14 pools down, 23 to go
