Jackie Robinson Pool and Recreation Center

89 Bradhurst Avenue | also 85 Bradhurst Avenue, 319 West 145th Street | Sugar Hill | built 1937

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.

1936
August 8
The Colonial Park Pool opens as one of Robert Moses's WPA pools
Parks Commissioner Robert Moses championed a set of eleven public pools built with Works Progress Administration funds, and this one opened in what was then Colonial Park on August 8, 1936. Architect Aymar Embury II designed the pool and play center with Romanesque-inspired details.
Source: Wikipedia
1936
Aymar Embury II's Colonial Park pool is more ornate than its WPA siblings
Aymar Embury II designs the Colonial Park pool and its bathhouse, which combines cylindrical shapes with Romanesque details. The design is more ornate than the ten other pools in the same 1936 WPA program. The main pool is 82 by 236 feet, only 3.5 feet deep, and fits about 4,090 swimmers at once.
Source: Wikipedia
1978
Colonial Park and its pool are renamed for Jackie Robinson
In 1978 the city renamed Colonial Park, with its pool and play center, for Jackie Robinson, the first Black player in Major League Baseball. The park had been created by an act passed on February 26, 1894, and its first section opened to the public on August 12, 1911.
Source: Wikipedia
2007
The city designates the pool and play center a landmark
In 2007 the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated Jackie Robinson Park, including the pool and play center, a New York City landmark. The park later received a $4.7 million renovation of its entrances, paths and lighting, completed in 2020.
Source: Wikipedia

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