Now that it’s swimming weather, many parents will take their kids to the pool at their local JCC, where they will sit on the sidelines chatting with friends and enjoying the respite — until they come to realize it’s been a little too long since they spotted young Zev or Yael in the Olympian expanse of chlorine and kickboards.
Ninety years ago, when parents were slightly more lax, San Franciscans headed out to the monumental Fleishhacker Pool, the largest saltwater pool in the world. Fed directly by the Pacific Ocean, and warmed to a modest 72 degrees, the pool was patrolled by kayaks and used by the military for drills. It was rumored that it could even be seen from space.
Built in 1924 by Jewish businessman and San Francisco Parks Commissioner Herbert Fleishhacker, the 1,000-foot-long pool could accommodate 10,000 bathers, and it was conveniently located near another of the philanthropist’s civic gifts — the Fleishhacker Zoo (now San Francisco Zoo). The pool, always expensive to run, closed in 1971 after a storm damaged its infrastructure.
This column is provided to j. by Daniel Schifrin, writer-in-residence at the Contemporary Jewish Museum, where stories of local Jewish life are explored in “California Dreaming: Jewish Life in the Bay Area from the Gold Rush to the Present.”