Highbridge Play Center and Pool

2301 Amsterdam Avenue | also 506 Edgecombe Avenue | Highbridge Park | built 1936

Open on the map4 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1934

    Aymar Embury II is supervising architect of the Art Moderne Highbridge Play Center

    Construction of the play center runs from 1934 to 1936 during the LaGuardia administration, on the site of the Highbridge Reservoir. Aymar Embury II is the supervising architect and Gilmore D. Clarke the landscape architect. The bathhouse's main entrance is a portico at Amsterdam Avenue and 173rd Street, flanked by two brick towers with flagpoles.

    Source: Wikipedia

  2. 1936

    July 14

    Robert Moses opens the Highbridge Pool, one of the city's WPA pools

    Built with Works Progress Administration labor during the Depression, the Highbridge pool complex opened on July 14, 1936, the fifth of Robert Moses's new city pools to open. Architect Aymar Embury II and landscape architect Gilmore D. Clarke designed it, with a large main pool and a wading pool beside a bathhouse in Streamline Moderne and Classical styles.

    Source: Wikipedia

  3. 1985

    June 14

    A three-year renovation restores the Highbridge Play Center

    Architect Stephen B. Jacobs designs a complete renovation of the play center and its pools, which takes three years. The city's parks agency had faced repeated budget shortfalls, and the pools had a reputation for crime. The play center reopens on June 14, 1985.

    Source: Wikipedia

  4. 2007

    June 26

    The city designates the Highbridge bathhouse and pool a landmark

    On June 26, 2007, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Highbridge Play Center's bathhouse facade and pool a New York City landmark. The complex sits in Highbridge Park near the old Croton water tower and the High Bridge, whose restored walkway reopened to the public on June 9, 2015.

    Source: Wikipedia

Nearby

All 2 buildings with stories in Highbridge Park