Arthur Ashe Youth Tennis Center (constructed on the grounds of the old Gustine Lake)
1950 Photograph of Gustine Lake
My Father Ronald Weleski (age 5yrs) 1939 Photograph at Gustine Lake
Closeup Photograph of Ronald Weleski at Gustine Lake in 1939Manmade lake once located at the 4200 block of Ridge Avenue just below the Wissahickon Falls and near where the Wissahickon Creek dumps into the Schuylkill River. The lake was fed by the waters of the Wissahickon Creek for many years until the lake was drained and a pool built on the same grounds.
For many years, Gustine Lake was the public waterhole for those living in the East Falls and surrounding areas during those hot summers before the invention of modern Air conditioners.
During the heighten concerns of the polio epidemic between the years 1932 to 1950, many families avoided the public waterhole during the the last weeks of August thu to the first two weeks of September when polio outbreaks were at their highest.
Today, the grounds of Gustine Lake are undergoing the construction of the Arthur Ashe Youth Tennis Center.
5 comments:
WE SPENT MANY WINTER NIGHTS ICE SKATING AT GUSTINE LAKE IN THE '50S. ALSO REMEMBER THE ROOTBEER HOUSE ACROSS THE STREET FROM THE LAKE. BERNIEFO@VERIZON.NET
AVONDALE, PA.
I learned how to swim in Gustine Lake. On hot summer days of the 70’s, we would meet up at the park for family cookouts and all the children would run down to the lake to play and swim. Some of the more fond childhood memories of growing up in Philadelphia.
I lived in East Falls Housing Project. In the 60's and early 70's this was our neighborhood pool. We would walk down School House Lane from the back part of the projects with only a swimsuit, towel and flip flops and spend all day there. We would come home to get lunch and go right back. The only problem was the pool was concrete and you'd get really scratched up on the sides and bottom if you weren't careful. But we were kids and just glad to be in the water. Looking back we had a lot of freedom as kids as we could go by ourselves; parents just sent us off with siblings or friends.
My mother would take us kids there when I was around 5yrs old. I remember once I cut my toe on a piece of broken coke bottle. She took me to the ER for a couple stitches. I love going there. It was a great place too cool off after visiting the Phila. Zoo.
Yes that was a great place for us to go, I really enjoyed those days, a place were all the families would go to enjoy, that’s were I leaned to swim, In 1968🥰.
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