Twinbrook Swimming Pool: Making a Splash for Over 50
Years
By Rob Perks (TSP member since 2001)
Let’s back float to 1955.
In March of that year, Elvis Presley makes his first
television appearance on “The Ed Sullivan” show. A month later, Ray Kroc starts
America’s first
fast food chain, McDonalds. The Disneyland theme park
opens its gates in July. And near the end of that summer, Twinbrook residents
flock to their new neighborhood pool.
The world has changed in unimaginable ways over the past five
decades, but it is comforting to know that the Twinbrook Swimming Pool is still
the backyard oasis that it was always meant to be.
“We’re lucky to have a crown jewel in our neighborhood that
still shines brighter than any diamond,” says Brooke Robbins, a member of the
pool and its unofficial historian.
An Olympian Task
The Twinbrook neighborhood is a quaint collection of 1950’s era
Cape Cods, largely nestled in a
triangular area bordered by Rockville Pike, Veirs Mill
Road and Twinbrook
Parkway. The pool, tucked behind a row of houses
on Atlantic Avenue, was one
of the very first in Montgomery County.
What was planned as “an adequate pool to meet the needs of
the community,” as detailed in early records, developed into a project of truly
Olympic dimensions. The pool –measuring 165 feet long by 52 feet wide (plus a diving
well and oversized baby pool) and with a 300,000 gallon capacity – still ranks
among the largest privately-owned pools in the region.
“It was a unanimous decision,” states a document from the
early days, “that since the pool will be a long-term community asset, enjoyed
by our children as they grow older, it would be best to start with the maximum
pool area and add frills later on as membership grows.”
A long-term asset indeed: While nearly two dozen community
pools were scattered throughout Montgomery
County in the mid-1950s, most have long
since dried up due to waning support. But Twinbrook’s pool still survives – and
continues to thrive.
That is because, over the generations, the pool has always
been about more than swimming. What began as a humble watering hole to stave
off Washington’s hot air –
weather-wise, that is – soon began to nourish the roots of the community.
For the first few decades, with the “baby boom” generation
in full swing, the pool overflowed with children. Teens clustered around the
snack bar, preened and strutted along the pool deck, and on weekend nights
enjoyed sock hops on the roof of the pool house. Every spring, for a time,
local women held fashion shows along the pool deck. One of the more popular,
and unique, past-times involved square dancing in the shallow end.
And, as always, there was the swim team, dubbed the Ducks,
which still keeps kids of all ages (and their parents) up to their gills in a healthy
activity the whole family can enjoy.
Can You Dig It?
To many local residents the pool is a hidden treasure,
buried in the heart of their community. As with all buried treasure, much
digging was required before residents could reap the pool’s rewards –
literally.
In a classic case of American “can-do-ism,” a handful of
residents in this blue-collar neighborhood – populated mostly by World War II
veterans and their young families – banded together to carve the pool out of a wooded
hillside. Each back-breaking scoop of dirt shoveled by those pool pioneers
eventually delivered a gift to the neighborhood that keeps on giving.
“There were a handful of us who dug it,” recalls Russell
Stearns, a retired aircraft design engineer. “I bet we produced enough sweat to
fill a pool.”
About 30 people did most of the work, so motivating the
volunteers required persistence and persuasion. “Sure the weather is hot. Just
ask the small group of people who have been working night after night, weekend
after weekend – they know how hot it is,” read literature distributed around
the neighborhood. “Can you really enjoy swimming off the sweat of your
neighbor’s brow?” (Talk about turning up the heat!)
So many gave so much to make the dream of a neighborhood pool
a reality, it would be impossible to do justice to the efforts of them all. A
few, however, deserve special recognition.
Leighton Dudley, then-president of the Twinbrook Citizens
Association (TCA), is credited with getting the pool project underway by
setting up committees to handle accounting, engineering and marketing.
Responsibility for overseeing construction rested on the shoulders of Gordon
Rudd, a TCA member and civil engineer. “He wielded a mean shovel when the need
arose,” reported one of the earliest pool newsletters. Another person who
played a big part in the project was John Eckhardt, the first chairman of the
pool’s board of directors, who reportedly spent every day at the pool site
until it was completed.
Of course, their labor of love wouldn’t have been possible
if not for the generosity of Catholic Archbishop Patrick A. O’Boyle. He
authorized the sale of the 5.6-acre Church-owned property for $10 to “life members”
(or certificate holders) of the Twinbrook Swimming Pool Corporation.
Pool Reflections
Houston Hancock, a local artist, started swimming at
Twinbrook pool the year after it opened. Of his many fond memories, he recalls
the state-of-the-art aluminum spring board high above the diving well. One of
the early masters of the board, according to Mr. Hancock, was a lifeguard named
Dave Fetyko.
“Dave was a marvelous diver who set the standard for what a
12-year old could attempt on the high dive,” Mr. Hancock marvels, even after
all these years. Fetyko may have been one of the best divers but, like
gunfighters in the Old West, challengers were never in short supply. “The clown
diving was the craziest,” Mr. Hancock recounts, “with seat-drop
one-and-a-halfs, full one-and-a-half gainers with a half-twist expertly
executed.”
Some 50 years later, the daily ritual of diving board
one-upmanship continues – the tricks are mostly the same, only the young
tricksters have changed.
Mr. Stearns, one of the shovel brigade and a self-professed
pool member “before the pool ever was,” says it wasn’t just the neighborhood
children who enjoyed the pool. His wife, Marilyn, was an ardent pool booster
because swimming was – and remains – her favorite hobby. “She’ll be swimming at
Twinbrook until she’s 120 years old at least,” he chuckles.
Refreshing the Community
The pool’s park-like environs – surrounded by green space
and shrouded by trees – makes this cool suburban paradise a welcome escape from
lazy summer days. More than just a haven for Twinbrook’s residents, the pool is
also a gathering place where neighbors can meet new friends, share local gossip,
celebrate family gatherings – while the kids frolic in a safe setting.
With membership at nearly 700 in its heyday, the waiting
list to join the pool used to be as legendary as the daily tussle for a parking
spot. Current membership is less than half that number. Even though it’s no
longer the “social mecca” that old-time members may recall, the pool is still a
very social place.
Patty Etzel Timm, who grew up in Twinbrook with her seven
siblings, can barely remember a time when the pool wasn’t the center of her
summer universe. “It seems like I learned to swim there before I learned to
walk,” she says.
Like many large families, growing along with the young
neighborhood, vacations were a luxury, which made the pool a mainstay of Patty’s
childhood. Now her two daughters swim for the team, her husband, Joe, spends much
of his spare time on pool maintenance, and Patty organizes various pool fundraisers.
“My family still lives at the pool,” she muses.
Endless Summer
Without a doubt this “little patch of Heaven,” as one member
described the pool, still entertains all summer long with raft parties, pig
roasts, carnival days, movie nights, volley ball games, birthday parties – and
all manner of just plain fun in the sun.
The pool’s real value goes deeper than that, of course. Throughout
Twinbrook pool’s storied history, its family-friendly atmosphere has fostered a
feeling of belonging to the neighborhood, not just living in one.
“The Twinbrook Swimming Pool is an important asset with a
long history of serving the local community,” says Rockville Mayor Larry Giamo.
“Most importantly, it helps to bring people together in what is one of Rockville’s
most diverse neighborhoods.”
Now that this hidden gem is no longer a secret, why not dive
in and join the fun this summer? As any Twinbrook pool member would attest:
“Come on in, the water’s fine.”
The author wishes to
thank Brooke Robbins for contributing to this article and Russell Stearns for
providing a wealth of historical documents. | 