In the summer heat of Reading, there was a time when a neighborhood pool was more than a place to swim. It was a statement of community pride. It was where children learned to float, teenagers gathered under the lights, parents volunteered behind snack-bar counters, and whole neighborhoods measured the season from Memorial Day to Labor Day.
For the College Manor section of northeast Reading, that place became College Manor Pool, built at Rockland and North 17th streets in Hampden Heights. Its story began not as a government project, but as a neighborhood undertaking — a private swimming association formed by residents who believed their corner of the city needed a place of its own.
The Idea Takes Shape
The first public signs of the project appeared in 1954, when the College Manor Swimming Association applied for a charter in Berks County Court. The organization’s stated purpose was to acquire, establish, and maintain a swimming pool for the recreation, entertainment, and social life of its members.
The incorporators were familiar northeast Reading names: Harry M. Bentz, Reynold C. Clouse, Dr. Joseph E. Gable, Charles R. Hawman, Frank X. Ratajczak, LeVan P. Smith, P. Dorran Brown, E. Richard Coller, Charles L. Gordon Jr., Albert L. Loeper, Douglas C. Rudy, and Clarence Stocker.
From the beginning, the plan was ambitious. The association proposed selling stock to finance the pool, with shares carrying a par value of $50. The application listed assets of about $45,000, a sizable sum for a neighborhood swimming project in the mid-1950s.
What made College Manor different was the spirit behind it. This was not a city-built pool, nor a school district facility. It was a neighborhood organizing itself.
“Pool Project Unites Neighbors”
By the fall of 1954, the dream had moved from talk to dirt.
Ground was broken in October at the intersection of 17th and Rockland streets, with Mrs. George P. Desjardins of Alsace Road, described as a member of the 250th family to join the nonprofit organization, turning the first shovelful of earth.
College Manor Pool Groundbreaking
The pool’s promoters proudly described it as Reading’s first neighborhood swimming pool. Members of the association did much of the preliminary labor themselves before contractors were brought in. Their goal was to keep costs down and open the facility free of debt.
A December 1954 building permit authorized construction of a concrete swimming pool and a one-story cinder-block building on the north side of Rockland Street between Elder and North 17th streets. The combined project was estimated at $40,000, with the contractor listed as the Manu-Mine Research and Development Company of Angelica.
At some later point, that original cinder-block building appears to have been expanded, although the exact date of the expansion has not yet surfaced in the available newspaper record. Like the pool itself, the building evolved with the needs of the association — serving not only as a practical support structure, but as part of the social center of the College Manor grounds.
The May 1955 feature story, headlined “Pool Project Unites Neighbors,” captured the mood of the project. According to that account, the idea had started the previous summer after Douglas C. Rudy read about a neighborhood pool built by a group in New Jersey. He and other Hampden Heights residents began meeting, studying pools, visiting public and private facilities, and discussing how such a project could be done in Reading.
Soon, handbills were distributed to homes within a ten-block radius of the proposed site. Before the legal formalities were even complete, enough families had signed up to fill the membership quota. Roughly 325 members paid $150 each before a shovel hit the ground.
It was local self-help in its purest form: residents clearing land, contributing time, raising money, and building a civic asset without asking the city to pay for it.
College Manor Pool Construction
College Manor Pool Construction
College Manor Pool Construction
College Manor Pool Construction
Built Without Public Money
That independence became part of the pool’s identity.
In July 1955, just before the pool’s dedication, association secretary Douglas C. Rudy addressed Reading City Council and argued that swimming pools should be financed privately by those who used them. Speaking for the College Manor Swimming Association, he said the group had constructed its pool without cost to the city or school district.
The point was not merely financial. It was philosophical. College Manor’s founders saw the pool as proof that residents could organize, fund, and maintain their own recreation facilities.
Rudy did, however, thank the city for assistance with widening and extending Rockland Street, the public improvement that helped make the site more accessible.
Opening Summer: 1955
College Manor Pool was dedicated on Saturday, July 9, 1955, with more than 300 people in attendance. City officials, association officers, clergy, Red Cross instructors, and neighborhood families gathered for the ceremony.
Dr. Joseph E. Gable, president of the College Manor Swimming Association, unveiled the dedication plaque. The dedication program emphasized children, safety, and neighborhood life. The pool was praised as a place where young people could swim under supervised conditions and where residents could gather in a spirit of cooperation.
The facility was impressive for a neighborhood association. Contemporary accounts described the main pool as 82½ feet long, with a width varying by section, and a depth ranging from shallow water to about ten feet. It was built of air-blown concrete and tile, surrounded by a large concrete deck and bordered by a grass-covered bank for sunbathing.
A semi-circular children’s pool was included, giving younger swimmers their own space. The filtration system was designed to completely change the water every eight hours — a point repeatedly emphasized in early articles as evidence that the pool was modern and well-planned.
By dedication day, the association could boast that the work completed had been paid for. The founding members had built not only a pool, but a debt-free neighborhood institution.
College Manor Pool 1955
A Wedge-Shaped Landmark
By 1957, College Manor Pool was one of 14 pools serving the Reading area during the summer. A Reading Eagle feature that year described the pool as a wedge-shaped facility, 82.6 feet long, with widths of 35 feet and 50 feet, holding about 150,000 gallons of water. It also noted a half-circle wading pool with a 35-foot diameter.
The pool was open from early June to early September, generally from 12:30 to 8:30 p.m. Membership stood at about 355 family members, with an initial stock outlay and annual dues. Paid employees included lifeguards, a pool manager, and snack-bar attendants.
College Manor was already more than a place to swim. It had volleyball, badminton, basketball, moonlight swims, College Manor Day, and sports leagues. It was a small summer world tucked into northeast Reading.
Reading’s Private Pool Era
College Manor belonged to a larger mid-century movement. In the 1950s, private swim clubs and neighborhood associations were appearing across Berks County. The 1957 Reading Eagle described a region served by pools such as Northwest, East Reading, Hillside, Ken-Grill, Wyomissing, Antietam Valley, Muhlenberg, Shillington, Mohnton, and others.
These pools were not simply recreational luxuries. They reflected the postwar growth of neighborhoods, the rise of family memberships, and a culture in which summer recreation was often organized locally. Some pools were borough-owned, some were association-run, and others were private clubs formed by residents.
College Manor’s story stood out because it was so closely tied to neighborhood initiative. Its founders had not waited for government to provide a facility. They sold stock, recruited families, cleared land, and built it themselves.
Generations at the Pool
For decades, College Manor Pool became part of the rhythm of summer in northeast Reading.
Children learned to swim there. Teenagers spent long afternoons on the deck. Families came after work. The snack bar, lifeguard stands, wading pool, diving board, and evening swims all became part of the place’s identity.
The strength of College Manor Pool was also found in the people who gave it its personality. One of those longtime figures was Mrs. Isabel Fick, remembered by the pool in a January 2022 tribute as a pioneer pool member and one of its “Golden girls.” The tribute described Mrs. Fick as someone who could almost always be found at College Manor on a sunny summer day — volunteering at swim meets, helping in the office, or simply tanning in the sun.
She was remembered as the “VOICE of College Manor,” a phrase that says as much about the pool as it does about her. College Manor was not just a place where people bought memberships; it was a place where certain people became part of the institution itself.
Mrs. Fick’s memory captures the human side of the pool’s history. Behind the concrete deck, wading pool, snack bar, and swim lanes were generations of volunteers, families, managers, lifeguards, swim-team parents, and neighborhood regulars who made the place feel alive. For many members, College Manor was less like a seasonal business and more like an extended summer family.
By the 2000s, the pool was still a neighborhood gathering place. A 2006 “Pool of the Week” feature in the Reading Eagle described College Manor’s swim team as the Sharks and listed family nights and moonlight swims among the pool’s attractions. The article captured the teenage side of pool culture — friends hanging out, playing basketball, swimming, reading, sunning, and spending long summer days together.
That continuity mattered. By then, many of Reading’s older private pools were under pressure. Memberships had declined at several associations, maintenance costs were rising, and the economics of operating large seasonal pools had become harder.
The 2005 Warning Signs
In 2005, Reading officials were already discussing whether the city should help struggling private swim associations. A Reading Eagle article that year noted that three of the city’s four private pools were expected to open, while Northwest Swimming Association was facing serious financial trouble.
College Manor, however, was listed as the exception. Its membership was reported at 467, matching its peak figure, while other pools had fallen sharply from earlier highs. The article showed College Manor still holding strong when other neighborhood pools were losing members.
But the broader trend was clear. Private pools were becoming harder to sustain. Aging infrastructure, insurance, staffing, utilities, and chemical costs all weighed on associations that depended heavily on memberships and volunteer leadership.
The 2008 Financial Scandal
College Manor also endured a major internal blow.
In 2008, the Reading Eagle reported that former treasurer John D. Baver had been charged with embezzling nearly $200,000 from the College Manor Swimming Association over several years. Investigators alleged that Baver wrote unauthorized checks to himself and arranged an unauthorized loan in the association’s name.
According to the report, officials discovered the fraud in 2007 when a bank notified the association that it was delinquent on a loan the board had not authorized. The article described a forensic audit and more than 50 counts related to theft and deception.
Despite the loss, the association continued operating. Current pool leaders at the time said membership dues and other income were being used to cover the damage. Even after a financial scandal that might have destroyed a smaller organization, College Manor survived.
The Last Private Pool Standing
By the 2020s, College Manor had become more than an old neighborhood pool. It had become a survivor.
A 2024 report described College Manor as Reading’s last private swimming pool and warned that it could be forced to close without financial help. The pool was described as “drowning in debt” after the combined impact of COVID-19 and infrastructure failures.
The association told Reading City Council that it needed $65,318 for repairs and debts, including more than $13,000 owed to the Reading Area Water Authority. The pool had failed to open in 2020 because of the pandemic, reopened in 2021 with only 65 individual and family memberships, and later struggled with rising costs, a cracked pool lining, deteriorating pipes, and leaks that drove up water bills.
Yet the same report also showed why people still fought for the place. Board members described the pool as a community asset, not merely a private club. It had hosted night events for city teens, offered public water aerobics classes, partnered with local organizations, hosted National Night Out, and supported lifeguard training.
The physical footprint remained tied to its 1955 origins: a wedge-shaped pool about 82.5 feet long, tapering from 50 feet to 35 feet, on more than an acre that also included a wading pool, volleyball court, and basketball court.
The debate in 2024 echoed arguments from 1955, but in reverse. In the beginning, College Manor’s leaders proudly argued that pools should be built privately. Nearly 70 years later, city officials were weighing whether a privately operated pool had become too important to the community to lose.
Council members raised questions about public money supporting a private club, while pool representatives said memberships helped stabilize operations. The board also agreed to open the pool to the public on excessively hot days so city children would have a safe place to cool off.
Council President Donna Reed summed up the emotional weight of the issue when she told the pool’s representatives, “You’ve been a major part of the community,” adding that Reading had already lost many pools and that those still left mattered to everyone.
More Than a Pool
The history of College Manor Pool is not just a story about concrete, water, and summer memberships. It is a story about neighborhood ambition.
In 1954 and 1955, a group of Hampden Heights residents believed their section of Reading deserved a modern swimming facility. They organized, sold memberships, cleared land, raised money, and built one. They dedicated it debt-free, with a children’s pool, modern filtration, lifeguards, and a vision for recreation that centered on families.
For decades, College Manor Pool served as a summer landmark. It adapted, expanded activities, survived financial strain, weathered scandal, and remained a place where generations of Reading children and families could gather.
Its story mirrors the larger history of Reading’s neighborhood pools: the optimism of the 1950s, the family-centered summers of the postwar era, the challenges of changing memberships, and the modern struggle to preserve community recreation in an older city.
College Manor Pool began as a private project built by neighbors. Nearly seven decades later, its survival became a public question — not because its history had faded, but because it had become so deeply woven into the life of northeast Reading.
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