TIMELINE : Douglass Park and Douglass Pool
April 2, 1932: Armco deeds the 13.44-acre property to the City of Middletown for $1. The deed was signed by Calvin Verity, vice president of the company, and Wilfred D. Vorhis, its secretary.
May 23, 1932: Middletown Park Board approves building a swimming pool at Douglas (then spelled with one "s") Park.
June 1, 1933: The park and pool open.
Summer 1954: Douglas Pool attracts 15,000 swimmers.
July 2, 1979: Potential health hazards caused the permanent closing of the park's swimming pool, 46 years and one month after it opened. An inspection revealed problems in the pool's fresh water circulation system and the deck walking areas.
June 7, 1980: Douglas Park's new $325,000 swimming pool reopens.
August 1980: City commission unanimously approves emergency legislation to rename the complex the Frederick A. Douglass Park in honor of the former-slave-turned-abolitionist. The question of where old Douglas Park acquired its name was debated for years. Local historian George Crout once reported that the former Armco president, the late George Verity, named the park in honor of Douglass and the name was subsequently misspelled with one "s."
April 1988: Violence between youths from Middletown and Hamilton disrupts Douglass Park. Police patrols are increased and church leaders from both communities hold forums to discuss the increased violence.
July 1988: A 13-year-old boy nearly drowns in the pool and a police investigation concludes it was an accident.
2004: City closes Douglass and Sunset pools.
August 2008: Douglass Park Splash Pad opens.
SOURCE:
Middletown Journal files
MIDDLETOWN — The nearly 80-year-old Douglass Park isn’t slowing down as it ages.
Instead, it’s reinventing.
In recent years, Douglass Pool, once patronized by swimmers from Middletown, Dayton and Cincinnati but hampered by dwindling attendance, was closed by a city drowning in debt; a splash pad has been built; Middletown Youth Football moved its program from Smith Park to Douglass; the Robert “Sonny” Hill Community Center has been refurbished; and Keep Middletown Beautiful has cleared out dead trees and replaced them with 43 new ones.
Douglass Park isn’t the popular hangout your parents or grandparents may remember, but many agree it’s alive and well.
“There is a lot going on, and we need to keep pushing forward,” said Jackie Phillips, the city’s health commissioner who worked as a lifeguard at Douglass in the late 1970s. “It’s different than when we were growing up.
“But it’s vibrant.”
The biggest blow delivered against the park came in 2004 when the city closed the pool.
Some residents who live near the park said they’re still bitter at the city for closing the pool and replacing it with a splash pad. One resident, who wanted to remain anonymous, said she viewed the closing as a slap against the black community.
Bishop Rudolph Pringle, 78, said he learned how to swim at Douglass and when the pool was closed, more than his childhood memories were bulldozed.
He called Douglass “the most beautiful pool in the land.” There was a time, he said, when the pool served as a centerpiece for activity in the community. It was the site for family reunions, neighborhood barbecues.
You met at Douglass, he said, because it generated “a warm experience of fellowship.”
Since the area’s best athletes — black and white — played basketball and softball at Douglass, the competition “held the keys to open the doors of racism.”
The park and pool also served as historical reminders for the young blacks in the community, Pringle said. He worries that those lessons won’t be taught in another decade.
“The memories of yesterday are removed,” he said. “It’s painful. We have to keep telling them about Martin Luther King, Arthur Ashe, the old warriors. They have to know who (Frederick) Douglass, the head of the park, is. That’s what’s killing me.”
Cecelia Thompson, recreation administrator at the community center, said while South End residents miss the pool, the park still offers plenty of activities.
Since the city eliminated its park program, the community center has expanded its summer options, she said.
She called the park “wonderful” and a welcome mat to the community
“It’s always been something for this area,” she said. “It’s the prettiest of parks.”
One of her sons, Titus Thompson, served as a lifeguard for about three years at Douglass Pool. Thompson works in California, but he remembers the park as the “focal point” in the community.
“It was a great place to hang out,” the 43-year-old said. “You wanted to hang out where there was action.”
Abdul Shakur Ahmad, a former Middies basketball standout, then known as Rick Martin, was a lifeguard in the late 1970s. He called Douglass the “gathering place” for the community.
“We all had fun in the swimming pool,” he said. “That’s where a lot of us learned how to swim.”
He said the future of all Middletown parks “looks good.”
Then he added: “If we make something attractive, people will come.”
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