December 2022 Image Contest

[ndembowski]

This uniquely shaped swimming pool no longer exists but it was once located in our area.  Can you figure out where it was located?

[naparose]

Van Cortland Park?

[Thomas Casey]

Looks like a 1960 ad from a real estate brochure.  Maybe Sky View

[Peter Ostrander]

I have feeling that a pool in the shape of an R was never actually built.  But if i had to guess perhaps  Riverdale Neighborhood House.

[ndembowski]

All of those guesses were in the right neighborhood, so to speak, but just a little off the mark.  I am glad I picked a tough one!  Here’s another view:

 

[Peter Ostrander]

Looks like the Catskills on an episode of  The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.  I give up.

[Thomas Casey]

The Windsor South has a large pool or maybe the old Riverdale Y on Independence Ave had one ??

[ndembowski]

I have two more images for you that should help with identifying the location.  The brochure that showed the first image of the pool also showed this image as a feature of the property:

Quite a swanky establishment for our neighborhood!  And finally, I am going to pull back on the photo to give you a wider view, which should help:

[Thomas Casey]

Now Riverdale Manor – Broadway & 254th

[julieabellhorn]

An ad from the Riverdale Press in 1961!

[ndembowski]

Nice work everyone and good find with the ad.  The Riverdale Motor Inn seems to have been perfectly located–across the street from Van Cortlandt Park and the stables and a short drive from Manhattan.  I wonder what happened with that venture.  I never knew it was a motel until I found the brochure, which boasted of a “Suburban Atmosphere Minutes From Downtown New York City” and “Public Golf Courses, Pony Track, Horseback Riding, Boating, Tennis, Athletic Fields, Picnic Areas nearby.”  The site of the swimming pool and parking lot was a vacant lot as long as I was familiar with the area and a new building was constructed there within the past year.  That’s the old motel on the left and a building touting “apartments for rent” on the right.

 

 

[Thomas Casey]

I actually never owned the Riverdale Motor Inn Pool Postcard, had many others.

[Thomas Casey]

I actually never owned the Riverdale Motor Inn Pool Postcard, had many others.

[Thomas Casey]

An other postcard

[Thomas Casey]

An other postcard

[Thomas Casey]

An other postcard

[Thomas Casey]

An other postcard

[Thomas Casey]

According to an FBI log of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s August 1963 meetings with publisher Al Duckett (as told by Taylor Branch in Parting the Waters), Dr. King “managed to escape almost every day to the nearby Riverdale Motor Inn, where Clarence Jones had ensconced a writer named Al Duckett to help with crash production of the Birmingham book (Why We Can’t Wait).”

[ndembowski]

Wow that’s incredible.  Martin Luther King working on his book at the Riverdale Motor Inn just might be more interesting than the “R” shaped swimming pool.  Well done!

[Thomas Casey]

Well….There was more to MLK’s stay at the Riverdale Motor Inn

[Author]

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