Our weekly history feature carries on with things that aren’t in Timmins anymore.
The Schumacher swimming pool officially opened on August 17th, 1938, where the Comfort Inn now stands. Local historian Karen Bachmann says it was a partnership between the McIntyre Mine, Tisdale Township and the Schumacher Lions Club.
“They put up that pool that was an open-air pool at the time because people were swimming in Pearl Lake, but people didn’t really like that idea because the mine operations were there, it was not the best of scenarios,” Bachmann tells us. “So kids wanted to do some swimming and they thought let’s make a pool.”
As you can imagine, the official opening feature a diving exposition and swim races.
“There was some entertainment provided by the Lions Club Boys Band; there was a bathing beauty contest for women over the age of 17; and then there was a great big street party at the end of the day that took place around the pool, says Bachmann. People partied for a very long time with that.”
The pool was open-air for its first 29 years. Walls and a roof were added as a Centennial project in 1967.
