Camden Swimming Pool

Camden Swimming Pool- A park with a swimming facility designated for whites where they served 145,000 people. A pool in South Camden was constructed for people of color. In 1929 the Camden County Park Commission began constructing a county park within the City of Camden after converting 33 acres of “swampland” into highland along the Cooper River east of Pine Street. The New Camden Park, which opened May 30, 1931, included tennis courts,an open air dance floor, a bandstand, playgrounds, a bath house and the largest swimming pool complex east of the Mississippi. .The main Farnham Park swimming pool with an adjacent diving, racing, and wading pools, was the largest bathing pool systems in the country with the following dimensions: general swimming pool -- 125 by 240 feet; diving and racing pool -- 60 by 125 feet; and wading pool – 80 feet in diameter. The complex served 5,000 on a hot day in 1933 and 145,000 in the year 1936. The Park Commission demolished the pool and the bath house thirty years later leaving only the baseball field and tennis courts