Extreme temperatures are pushing people to find ways to cool off.
One of those is a dip in a local pool.
Public outdoor pools remain highly popular as essential community spaces and crucial relief from extreme summer heat like we will be seeing over the next few weeks.
The county operates the Frog Pond with lots of water park amenities, but the Rosa L. Peters Pool is the only true outdoor pool in Christiansburg and dates itself to over 90 years.
The Rosa L. Peters pool, located at 300 Depot Street NW, is rooted in the town’s history of segregation and serves as an important monument to Christiansburg’s black history, originally being built to ensure African American children had a safe place to swim and play. It is now open to the general public.
The Rosa L. Peters’ site dates to 1934 when local resident Rosa Lee Peters teamed with organizers to address the lack of recreational areas for Black youth.
The Civic Betterment League worked heavily to establish the location and others for children who were banned from “white-only” facilities under the then-Jim Crow laws.
Peters left behind a financial estate to secure and develop the land. In 1938, the site officially established its charter under the historic name “The Children’s Playground for the Negro Children in the Christiansburg area.”
Even after racial integration, the pool and playground’s board preserved Rosa Peters’ name to honor her foundation civil contributions.
Industry reports recently said out of the 10.7 million swimming pools in the United States, only about 309,000 are public. During the New Deal era of the 1930s, the United States government built thousands of public pools. However, desegregation battles of the 1950s and 1970s prompted many communities to close public facilities rather than integrate them, triggering a major boom in private backyard pools and country clubs.
But the Rosa L. Peters’ playground and pool survived and is thriving.
A revitalization project improved the playground area, added three pickleball courts and an open-air pavilion adjacent to the pool area.
The RP pool is not numb to challenges that other public pools are facing like lifeguard shortages and aging infrastructure. But the foundation’s executive director David Moore said they have been lucky in maintaining lifeguards from the past while adding younger ones for the increase in activity during the summer months.
The picnic pavilion and multi-purpose building are available for rent, while the pool and playground are open to the public, Monday through Friday from 1-6 p.m., and on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The cost to swim is $2 for children and $3 for adults.
For more information, call 540-381-8381.
The playground also hosts an annual “back to school” drive where attendees receive free backpacks and other school items.
