Historical Albion Michigan
By Frank Passic

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Any photos not otherwise credited are from the personal collection of Frank Passic, Albion Historian.

VICTORY PARK SWIMMING POOL

Morning Star, June 26, 2005, pg. 2

With another tragic drowning occurring on June 19 off the Haven Road bridge above the Victory Park dam, we are again reminded of the lack of choices available for outdoor swimming here in town. The youth of our community have either had to pay money to use an indoor chlorinated pool, or swim clandestinely by the Victory Park waterfall as has often been the case, or find transportation to Swain’s Lake.

This is unlike Albion’s early years, when the Kalamazoo River provided a welcome relief to the summer’s heat. “Dutchtown,” located along S. Hannah St. just south of the Albion College athletic field, was the official community swimming place for many years, complete with bathhouse. Unfortunately, it was closed in the 1950s and the river level along the old Peabody/Gothic millrace along Wilson Drive and Linden Avenue was subsequently lowered. Since that time Albion hasn’t had its own official outdoor swimming place. Today you can still see the decaying remains of the Dutchtown swimming area along S.Hannah St.

Swimming beaches at both Montcalm and Spectacle Lakes a mile west of town were closed in the early 20th century, as well as Dudek’s along the Kalamazoo River toward Concord in the 1970s. A proposed swimming area in Barnes Park on Water St. was never developed, as there are electric power lines overhead at that location.

During the Great Depression, Albion Mayor Norman H. Wiener had a knack for securing government funds in the era of the National Recovery Act and the Works Progress Administration. Our City Hall was built under Wiener’s leadership, as well as the stone retaining wall that lines the Kalamazoo River and is in dire need of repair today. Our band shell in Victory Park, and the 1940-laid brick Superior St. are two more examples of secured funding that resulted in local improvements.

One idea that was on the drawing board in the 1930s but did not see fruition was an outdoor community swimming pool to be located in Victory Park. In 1937, the Albion City Council approved the idea of an outdoor swimming pool, and City Engineer Hugo A. Rieger drew up the blueprint for the project. Dated April 3, 1937, the design featured a stone edifice containing an entrance for the girls on the left, and the boys on the right. In the front center was a stone drinking fountain. Above that were the signs that stated, “Victory Park Swimming Pool, 1937.” In the back was proposed a tall chain-link fence, approximately 105 feet long according to the scale with the pool inside.

From our Historical Notebook this week we present the drawing of the proposed Victory Park swimming pool, showing the main entrance building.


Proposed VIctory Park Swimming Pool, 1937

Next: Albion 100 Years Ago -- July 1905


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