Betsy Head Park

For outdoor pool details, including hours and rules, please visit our Free Outdoor Pools page.

What was here before?

The park was previously vacant land purchased early in the 20th century through funds from local Brownsville property owners. The first outdoor pool in New York City was built here in 1915, replaced in 1936 by the current facility.

How did this site become a pool?

The summer of 1936, deep in the Great Depression, broke local heat records. Betsy Head Pool was one of eleven immense outdoor public pools the Parks Department opened that summer. The heroically scaled pools project was financed by the Federal Works Progress Administration (WPA), as part of a massive effort to alleviate adverse health conditions and provide safe recreation in predominantly working-class communities.

The pools were not just huge but also examples of state-of-the-art engineering and fine design. Each pool had separate swimming, diving and wading areas, perimeter bleachers, and bathhouses whose locker rooms served as gyms during non-summer months. Led by architect Aymar Embury II and landscape architect Gilmore D. Clarke, the planning team produced a series of distinct complexes, each one sensitive to its site and topography. Massive filtration systems, heating units, and even underwater lighting provided a more controlled bathing experience than the often treacherous and polluted waterways in which the City’s masses had traditionally swum. The palette of pools building materials was mainly inexpensive brick, concrete and cast stone, but the styles ranged from Romanesque Revival to Art Deco.

Betsy Head Pool, measuring 330 by 165 feet, was designed to accommodate 1,200 bathers at a time. It opened on August 6, 1936. Designed by architect John Matthews Hatton, the pool’s Art Moderne aesthetic is distinguished by its streamlined bathing pavilion punctuated with glass block walls and a stylized parasol roof deck. In 2008, the facility was designated an official New York City landmark.

Who is this pool named for?

The pool and park are named for philanthropist Betsy Head (1851-1907), a British immigrant who was a philanthropist and businesswoman. Head left a substantial bequest stipulating that half go to the City of New York for the “purchase and improvement of grounds for the purposes of health and recreation.”