**EDIT**
(August 2024)
As of summer 2024 The Pool has been razed.
The land is flat and has become the side/back yard of a newly constructed house (on the site of the old Annapolis Country Club club house)
Photo taken Aug. 23, 2024 from atop the hill, where the white fence was, looking down to exactly where the pool was.
The house under construction is not visible here. It is out of frame to the left.
Many many trees have been removed.
CLICK HERE for a bigger picture
Ted Gioia says "fame lasts about 80 years" and then what was well know is forgotten to the masses.
So now, with any trace of the neighborhood pool gone to the winds of time and "development" all that remains will be
this website,
a video I shot in 2013 that can be viewed on
Vimeo (CLICK HERE) or on YouTube (CLICK)
and the memories of geezers like me, to whom the pool was so important.
A few things:
The club house is still there.
The pool and swim team were still very active for several years after the "country club" or "club house" as we called it, was torn down.
The snack bar in this picture (striped awning to the right of the club house on upper deck)
was later replaced with a cinder block building not much bigger than what is pictured above.
If you look at the 1966 Swim Team photo below you'll notice that behind the team, in the back of the photo
the snack bar is now made of concrete block. So, it was probably replaced in 1965 or early 1966.
That new snack bar was lock-able and served a wider array of treats, including the ever-luscious "roller dogs".
Many of the swim team members worked there to earn some spare cash.
The Late 1970's
(photo from Matthew Richardson Aug. 2019)
VIDEO OF THE POOL
JUNE 2013
The video is a tour of the pool grounds as it stands (or crumbles) in June 2013.
It is about 20 minutes long with a bit of narration.
If you remember this place fondly, this film will break your heart.
LINKS
Click a link below
THEN
A Gallery of Swim Team Ribbons
League and Team Championship Programs
My memories of THE BEACH (with photos)
The Forts We Built in the Woods
History of Annapolis Roads - by James Gibbs (pdf download)
History of the
Annapolis Roads Beach Club
by Harry T. Aycock
(posted with permission)
click the picture to read the history
The Beach Club
near current site of L'Altura
(Photo by James G. Gibb)
(Photo by James G. Gibb)
From the air, probably the 1940's.
A few things to note:
1 - regarding the "future site of Anchorage":
Until the mid 1960's it was a cow farm.
... or maybe it was just a farm WITH cows.
As kids we would go along the old railroad path at the end of Old Bay Ridge Rd,
climb over the barbed wire fence and play in the cow field.
I remember averting cow pies, and tearing my pants on the barbed wire fence.
Even at the age of 6 (in 1965) I knew the raised path at the South end of Old Bay Ridge Rd
had a long time ago (1886-1904), had a train running along it.
There were rotted railroad ties, and we would find those big nails (spikes?) that held the tracks to the ties.
What WAS a raised path leading south in a continuation from Old Bay Ridge Rd to Anchorage (with a steep drop down on both sides)
has either eroded down or been demolished, so the continuous raised path no longer exists (in 2023).
Believe it or not, there is a Wikipedia page about
The Bay Ridge and Annapolis Railroad - CLICK HERE
2 - There are no trees between Carrolton and Edgewood Rd.
3 - There is a big field at the current site of the Giant grocery store.
. . At the time of this photo it was The Annapolis Airport (picture below)
4 - When I was a kid, mid 1960's, when Bay Ridge Ave. was a gravel road,
the land along Edgewood Rd that no longer had an airport, DID have a chicken farm, with lots of coops.
Annapolis Airport
From: http://www.airfields-freeman.com/md/Airfields_MD_AnneArundelCo.htm
CLICK HERE for info about the old airport
http://www.airfields-freeman.com/md/Airfields_MD_AnneArundelCo.htm
.
NOW
If you have pictures or anything else (articles, anecdotes, etc.) relating to the pool or swim team that you would like to share
CLICK HERE and send them to me.
Bruce Bubier, February 2016
Thanks to my folks, Al and Jane, for saving all the photos, articles, and ribbons for over 40 years.
1966
This is probably 1966.
1967
Annapolis Country Club Swim Team 1967
Swim Meet.
The pool is 100 feet long, 33 1/3 yards.
This gave the ACC team an advantage because all the other pools
were either 25 yards or 25 meters long.
When we swam at their pools the race seemed shorter to us.
When we swam home the pool was longer than our competitors were used to.
Posing on the steps of the middle board which was used only infrequently.
You'll notice that there is no board in place.
1969 (I'm pretty sure)
Beneath the high dive were painted the team records.
Front row left to right
Laurie Ladd Jones (age 6), Suzie Gray (6), Christine Koeppen (5)
Back row left to right
Craig Bubier (4 1/2), Danny Jayne (6), Jeff Krissoff (6)
Every year at the end of year there was a swim team banquet.
There we received the medals we earned at the team championship
Front row left to right
Bruce Bubier, Wendy Frye, Nancy Gilhouly (not sure about the spelling)
Back row left to right
Duane Nuckles, Chris Soldano, Molly Malone
Swim Team 1969
A memory by Matt Jayne:
"You asked for them; my earliest memories are of ACCP. It was the day they had coins into the bigger pool for the bigger kids and had minnows in the baby pool for kids my age ( I was three or four ) As I was trying to catch a minnow, I dropped my sandwich bag that I was suppossed to catch the minnow in. I could not find the bag with all of the kids thrashing about and I started to cry. Someone ( I think she was an 18 year old life guard) said, "Did you drop this?" It was a sandwich bag with a goldfish already in it! "
Do you remember the 4th of July festivities? The turtle races, coin dive, watermelon war, relay races, and all the other fun?
1970
(This picture was provided by Corry Smythe Atwell.)
I am almost positive that this is from 1970.
1971
1972
1972 Team photo
.
13-14 year-old age group
(This picture was provided by Corry Smythe Atwell.)
TOP ROW - left to right
Val or Greg Eshelman, Bruce Bubier, Andy Vaughn, Tom Jayne, Duane Nuckles, Greg or Val Eshelman
BOTTOM ROW - left to right
Peter Smythe, Julie Strandquist, Libby Simms, Vicki Holt, Shawn McMahon
.
11-12 year-old age group
(This picture was provided by Corry Smythe Atwell.)
Standing - Left to Right
unknown, Blaise Strandquist???, Stan Morris, Tommy Yates???, Greg Holcomb, David Gray, Chris Soldano
Seated - Left to Right
Theresa Jayne, unknown, Casey Crandall, Sally Bubier, _____ Yates???, Katie Greene, Corry Smythe, Betsy Greene, Bridget Strandquist
If you recognize any of these unnamed or unusurely named folks please email me.
.
(The following four pictures were provided by by Jamie Eshleman Saacke)
Jeff Smyth, Mark Soldano
Deana Britton, Kim Eshelman (these are maiden surnames)
Jamie today with her old team sweatshirt and trophies
Jamie says, "This is my dog wearing Thor's (our boxer) banner that my mom made for him to wear at our swim meets."
.
1965
Alan Bubier going off the low board.
Bruce, atop his dad's shoulders
(This kind of "dangerous" activity is no longer permitted at pools.)
I can't recoginze any of the people sitting behind us.
If you remember the webbed folding chairs that were there,
you may find it interesting to know that every couple of years the members of the swim team (the kids),
and their parents re-strung the webbing when the chairs wore out.
We all pitched in to make the pool work. We didn't hire a company to do it.
It helped build community when we all worked together for the common good.
This has got to be the Money Dive on the 4th of July.
Rolls of change were tossed into the pool for the kids to collect.
Before the days of goggles we had to open our eyes underwater to get the coins.
Whatever we collected we immediately spent at the snackbar.
Here you'll see another "dangerous" activity that somehow we survived.
The kids are all diving into the shallow end of the pool. (3 feet deep).
Amazingly, no one to my knowledge, ever broke their neck.
Heck, we even started our swim meet's races from starting blocks in the shallow end.
Bruce Bubier
The following 8 photos were provided by Matthew Richardson.
Matt Richardson, Mike Drexler - 1974?
Matt Richardson - 1979
Andrew Richardson - 1971?
Andrew Richardson - 1979
In Pool: Jake Jacobsen? (younger), Andrew Richardson
Standing: Jake Jacobsen? (older), Bob Rau?
Andrew Richardson (in the center) - 1979
Andrew Richardson - 1979
David Richardson - 1979
.
.
(top to bottom) - (I think this was taken in the Sinnott's front yard on Ogleton.)
Colleen Sinnott, Sinnott
Johnny Kramer, Tom Sinnott, Corey Smythe
Val Eshelman, Bruce Bubier, Greg Eshelman, Sally Bubier
.
(left to right)
Robees Bowser, Craig Bubier, Johnny Kramer, Peter (Bub) Koeppen, Bruce Bubier, Sally Bubier, Corey Smythe(?)
Can you identify what the numbers indicate?
Click on the pic for a larger image and key to the numbers.
Here is a list of things that made Annapolis Roads the greatest place in the world
to be a kid during the 1960's and 70's.
| The sense of community | A REAL 40 hour work week | At-home moms | Dads who were always there for us |
| Free Time | Responsibility | Accountability | Understanding "consequences" |
| Lots of kids | Good Public schools | Timmy's (restaurant) | C & C (when it was just a convenient store) |
| The Pool (the focal point) | The Swim Team | Lake Ogleton | The Two Ponds |
| The Beach | The Field (L'Altura) | The Woods (Ogleton Woods) | The "bike-aility" of the community |
| Kites | fishing | Building Forts | sandlot ball games at "the field" |
.
.
Most importantly we had lots and lots of unscheduled, non adult-directed, free time.
Many people, but few educators, belittle the learning that goes on during this unstructured time away from adults when children have to learn on their own.
We had to make our own fun (and boy did we know how to do that).
Parents were NOT involved in everything we did. A child's world was his or her own.
We didn't have the internet or 100 TV channels.
The only video game was the pinball machine at Timmy's restaurant
(what was The Mexican Cafe, now gone, to the right of The Dark Horse (formerly The Ebb Tide, and during my childhood it was The Anchor Inn)
at the entrance of Annapolis Roads).
I do vaguely remember there being a real slot machine at the C & C, probably around 1964.
There were lots and LOTS of kids to play with - and play we did. (And with that play came valuable life lessons)
Things were very different for kids then.
And lest we forget, the freedom and responsibility our parents gave us. "Be home before dinner", we heard in the morning and they had no clue where we were or what we were doing. We didn't always make the wisest decisions, we did break the occasional bone or get the occasional stitch. If we did get caught doing something bad we knew we would be punished, severely.
The pool, as you know, is located at the back end of the community between Claibourne Road and Lyon Drive overlooking Heron Lake (we knew it as Otter Lake) and, in the distance, the Chesapeake Bay. The Annapolis Roads Swim Team or ACC Swim Team, or just plain ol' ACC, had many participants and coaches over the years. This old team is not to be confused with the current Annapolis Swim Team which is based at another pool that does NOT have a family of foxes as tenants.
If anyone knows when the last year the team and pool were up and running please email me. Thanks.
The Annapolis Country Club, or ACC, was not to this former child member, anything like what one now perceives as a "country club".
I remember my Dad telling me that pool dues were $125. Seems like a bargain today, but I also remember that his mortgage payment was around $200. Hmmmm, not so cheap after all.
Though it was rarely, if ever, called it, the Annapolis Roads Country Club was exactly that, or seemed so to this child's eyes, a club for the community. It seemed like all the kids in the neighborhood belonged to the pool and almost all of them were on the swim team. The pool, the club, "belonged" to the neighborhood.
A brief mention here of the communities of Carr's Beach and Sparrow's Beach. They were at the end of Edgewood Dr. less than a half mile away through the swamp at Chase Pond (called Beale's Pond way back when). Some good folks and our classmates lived there. Check out the Carr's Beach web site at www.carrsbeach.com
If you remember the two summers in the early 1970's when there were rock concerts at Carr's Beach you may want to check out this site:
Concerts at Carr's Beach (aka The Great McGonigle's Seaside Park) - this site is work in progress - as I get more info, I'll post it.
If you have any memories, or photos, or ticket stubs, or anything relating to the shows there, please email me
Annapolis Roads was an incredible place to be a kid.
It may still be, but it surely is not the same.
Location of the Pool
A Gallery of Swim Team Ribbons
League and Team Championship Programs
My memories of THE BEACH (with photos)
The Forts We Built in the Woods
CLICK HERE and send it to me.
Bruce Bubier, February 2016
If you haven't seen the Official Annapolis Roads web site
Check it out here
www.annapolisroads.net