Blithewood Swimming Pool

Griffin Paper Co.

Swimming Pool Postcard

This postcard depicts another angle of the Blithewood pool. Acquired by Bard with the Blithewood estate in 1951, the college maintained the pool until the early 1970s. In the spring 2005 issue of About Town magazine, Dorothy Crane writes about the 'pool by the falls': "The pool was an integral part of summer life at Bard for 20 years after the college acquired it. A green canopy of overhanging trees shaded the surrounding wooden deck. Faculty sat in their lawn chairs, smoking cigarettes, drinking gin and tonics, and discussing politics and the latest college gossip. Children perched tentatively on the edge at the shallow end, carefully watched by parents because even the shallow end was pretty deep. Students did cannonballs off the diving board. My husband's friend put his kayak in the pool to practice rollovers. There was no chlorine smell, only the fresh. churned-up mist generated by the falls and the roar of the cascading water. It felt more like a swimming hole than a pool. My husband and his friends who grew up on and around the campus describe the pool as a sort of Garden of Eden. When he and I were first getting to know each other I had the sense that meeting the stream and the pool was almost as important as my meeting his parents."

Joan Navins Collection

Bard College Archives

1960-1970

HRVH

Prior written permission required to use any photograph from the Joan Navins Collection.

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Postcard