Some Good News About Brooklyn Landmarks

It's been a relatively good week in terms of Brooklyn landmarking efforts making progress. As you've probably heard by now, McCarren Pool finally gained landmark status. In addition, the Sunset Play Center and Bath House were also landmarked. (That's the interior pictured here.) The protected structures include all the pools at the Sunset Park facility, the bath house, outside walls and everything else in between. It is another one of the WPA era pools built by Robert Moses and, like the others, is a vital community amenity and also an important piece of New York City history. Here's a bit from the LPC's press release about the landmarking, a link to which can be found in a Historic Districts Council Newsstand post on the pool preservation progress:

The enormous center, which displaced a small lake, officially opened on July 20, 1936, the sixth of the 10 WPA pool complexes completed that summer, and the first to open in Brooklyn. The swimming pool measures 256 by 165 feet and the small semi-circular wading and diving pools at either end each measure 165 feet in diameter.

The Sunset Park Pool is on Seventh Avenue between 41st and 44th Streets. (If you've never been to any of the WPA pool, check them out; they truly are a unique piece of New York City history and in the column of Moses legacies that don't cause your blood pressure to spike.) The Red Hook Pool is still up for landmark consideration.

In other landmarking news, the creation of a Historic District in Dumbo moved forward by a unanimous vote. It will be up for consideration later this year. Also, according to the Historic Districts Council Newsstand, the Fiske Terrace-Midwood Park Historic District proposal will have a hearing on October 16.