Teens swim in the Hudson in the early 1920’s at the Newburgh/New Windsor border.

Without the Delano-Hitch pool open this summer, some children are congregating at water spray stations set up around the city by the Recreation Department. Kids can splash through the water that comes from special hose nozzles fanning the refreshing mist out into patterns in the air – for a couple of hours at varying locations like neighborhood corner parks.

Splashing and dunking opportunities are far fewer than in my childhood and generations before me. In the mid-twentieth century, Newburgh had three pools – Delano Hitch at the Recreation Park – a.k.a. “the rec,” in mid-town and full-size pools at both the YMCA and the YWCA in downtown.

Step back another generation to the early 20th century, and swimming was not as managed (or safe) but opportunities were vast. Until the end of the 1920’s a trolley took passengers out South Street/Route 52 to Orange Lake which had a bathing beach as part of its amusement park. There was also fresh water swimming on the far southside of Newburgh at a sandy beach at Crystal Lake at the end of Temple Avenue. Plus, people swam right in the Hudson River, never a safe option but mighty popular with Newburgh children. My old friend, Warren Boyd, told me about swimming at the unofficial open water sections of the Hudson between old industrial docks and how he and his pals had to watch out for the police who chased them back to the safety of land. The policeman who first blew his whistle and called Warren out of the Hudson was a city officer named Warren Boyd! They laughed about their shared name, and my friend said he knew he wouldn’t get away with much illicit swimming again.

There were other unofficial Hudson River swimming beaches; one was in Balmville at the foot of Commonwealth Avenue on a sandy spit of land where children and whole families waded in after crossing the railroad tracks – a second danger that folks ignored for the chance to plunge in and cool off in those days before air conditioning. On the opposite shore, in south Beacon, the peninsula of Dennings Point had a swimming beach too that attracted hundreds on sweltering days. Newburghers could take the ferry and walk through the woods and across the tracks out to the point or find a neighbor who would drive them right to the gate. Today, a walk around the perimeter trail of Dennings Point gives no hint of the location or size of its old rocky summer beach. Trees have grown back to the shore, and one must scramble down a steep hillside to reach the river and the lovely view back to Newburgh that swimmers once enjoyed.

The sight and the danger of young teens jumping from old coal docks into river water that was far from clean and free of submerged obstructions is what prompted Newburgh’s great benefactor, Annie Delano Hitch, to invest in a modern pool facility for its citizens in 1931. We all root for a plan that will see it repaired and reopened before its centennial.