The National Register of Historic Places recently designated the Chartlottesville, Virginia-based Blue Ridge Swim Club as a historic site.
The swimming pool opened in 1913 as an addition to Camp Blue Ridge. The pool is quite large and campers used it for canoeing as well as swimming.
After the camp closed in 1919, neighbors took on the job of caring for the pool. One interesting fact about the pool is that it is fed by a natural spring that flows from end of the pool to other.
Todd Barnett, current owner of the pool, told WVTF Public Radio that the Blue Ridge Swim Club is the third oldest pool in the nation at 102 years.
Barnett told WTFV some history behind the pool:
It was built by R. Warner Wood for a camp that he ran called Camp Blue Ridge for about ten years, between 1909 and 1919, and he built the pool as best I can tell in 1913, but it was an elaborate pool where they did canoeing, and they had a gigantic platform on the deep end for diving.
He also told WTFV that he applied for the designation mostly so he could proudly display it whenever visitors come swim at the pool. Read More
