Aymar Embury II Gallery of NYC New Deal Projects - Photo #87 - Other Pools and Play Centers

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johnjaypool
Photo: NYC Parks Department
John Jay Swimming Pool in Manhattan, built by the WPA and opened in June 1940 in John Jay Park along East River, 76th-78th Street, architect: Aymar Embry II, and the bathhouse (itself an Embury renovation project) in the background.
References:
  1. Table 2: Office for Metropolitan History, Manhattan New Building (NB) Database, 1900-1986: Aymar Embry II Parks Department Projects 1934-1943: "1939 DOB #157: John Jay Park, swimming pool".
  2. NYC Parks Department Press Release, 3 June 1940: "Work in connection with this improvement was designed by the Department of Parks and performed by the Work Projects Administration."
  3. John Jay Park Pavilion, 6tocelebrate.com, accessed 17 November 2019: "The swimming pool in front of the pavilion was added in the early 1940s under the tenure of Parks Commissioner Robert Moses, an avid swimmer and champion of public pools, and designed by Aymar Embury II, the Parks Department architect responsible for the numerous pool complexes constructed across the city in the late 1930s and early 1940s under the Works Progress Administration. At the same time as the pool went in, the pavilion underwent renovations to provide park goers with an auditorium, recreation room, gym and changing facility for nearly 2,000 bathers."
  4. Aymar Embury II NYC Parks Department Projects 1934-1943, Table 2 and Table 3: Embury is also credited other work in John Jay Park: a 1-story frame house; alterations to the recreation building (the John Jay Pavilion, seen at the far end of the pool in the photo above, and in the next photo), a new field house, and some bleachers.
  5. John Jay Park, Wikipedia, accessed 17 November 2019: "A swimming pool and promenade was built nearby from 1940 to 1942, part of a Work Projects Administration construction program. In 1941 the bath house was renovated to include an auditorium, recreation room, gym, and changing facility which could accommodate 1,002 male and 590 female bathers."
  6. John Jay Park History, NYC Parks Department website, accessed 17 November 2019.
  7. New York City Record, 4390, 22 July 1941, pp.12-13: "The proposed contract to secure architectural services of Aymar Embury, II, is for the preparation of complete plans, specifications, etc., for ... the construction of a diving pool and related alterations to the filter house in John Jay Park ... In June, 1940, the Department of Parks opened a new outdoor swimming pool in John Jay Park, and an existing recreational building located in that park has been converted into a bathhouse. The department now proposes to construct a diving pool, about 40 feet by 60 feet, adjacent to the existing pool which is 145 feet by 50 feet, and to make the necessary alterations and additions to the existing filter house and equipment to provide for the diving pool. ... The work at Cherokee place bathhouse and at John Jay Park is to be done by the WPA ..."