The west bathhouse at Long Island’s Jones Beach State Park serves as an architectural relic; with sprawling space to swim flanked by viewing decks and stately brick turrets, the pool stands as one of many iconic structures by city planner and builder Robert Moses in the early 20th century.
To New York urban historians, it also acts as evidence of Moses' ulterior architectural motives: to maintain community isolation in an already-segregated New York and Long Island. Accounts show that Moses purposefully built bridges that cross over parkways leading to the park too low for buses coming from the city to pass under them, making those without cars — disproportionately, communities of color — unable to reach the shore, the pool or the nature held within Jones Beach.
Earlier this month, 99 years after Moses broke ground to begin Jones Beach’s construction, the pool itself looked the same — turrets and all. But architecture is where historical similarities ended; nearly every chaise at the west bathhouse was taken by friends, couples and families speaking myriad languages, representing countless cultures, and coming from all parts of Long Island, New York City and beyond.
“Everybody's here, like different races,” said Stephanie Mohabir, a resident of Long Island. “Like, usually, I don't see all these different people here, but literally everyone is around having a good time, enjoying the summer.”
Jones Beach has been Mohabir’s go-to spot for years. She attributed the change in pool attendants to a change in entrance cost: this summer, all state park pools in New York were free to enter.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul made the move in July as part of the state’s “Get Offline, Get Outside” campaign. Last year, Long Island and New York City saw record-breaking heat — an especially challenging circumstance when city residents have difficulty finding places to cool off.
“This is to promote mental healthand physical health and [encourage] families and our kids to just go to a throwback time,” Hochul said. She announced free admission at Riverbank State Park pools in Manhattan. “Think about when you were young, what you did with your time? You kicked balls, you played catch, you swam.”
Though pool attendee Mohabir thinks the entrance fee isn’t too hefty—$5 for adults and $3 for children—she understands how the cost could add up for others. Across the pool, Anna Moran’s family of nearly 20 shared chicken fingers and fries spread out across a picnic table.
“Since they were little, I promised them a pool party if they graduated as a way to motivate them. So my daughter told me about this pool,” she said.
Cecilia Salvador, Moran’s daughter and a mother herself, said the pool’s free entrance made their pool day possible. “Sometimes you know the package is tight. You need to pay rent and things like that,” she said. “We’re 19 people, almost 20… it [gets] really expensive.”
Moran and her family drove to the pool from Brooklyn, taking the scenic parkways created by Moses. But pool captain Tammy McLoughlin says those without cars can now access the pool, too.
“They get to take the trains, and then we have buses that run right from the Long Island Railroad to the beach,” she said. ”I’m seeing families as far as – in fact – we just had families the other day coming from Connecticut, coming from Westchester, coming from New York City. Thank God our infrastructure has changed.”
McLoughlin has been coming to Jones Beach State Park since she was a child; it’s a place that holds incredible memories for her and her own children, now. “I'm seeing on almost a daily basis, repeat families… It's very special for us because typically, last year, I wouldn't have seen that. It's really a game changer, because everybody really deserves to be able to participate and see what Long Island has to offer. It creates memories like I had as a child.”
The change didn’t come without challenges. “It did catch me off guard,” said McLoughlin. “Because we found out as everybody else did, as the public did, on TV.”
Despite the short notice, McLoughlin said staff were quickly added to account for the influx which, according to the state, was up 165% over the 4th of July weekend. The state is also providing $100 million in funding to renovate the park's east bathhouse, which has been vacant since 2008.
Hochul’s office has not announced whether free pool entry will continue into the next swimming season. Regardless, new history and new memories have been made at Jones Beach State Park’s west bathhouse this summer.
