We don’t know much about this swimming pool in Washington Township except it was quite popular. We believe it was behind the firehall. If anyone has any stories or pictures to share, please do so. Thanks!

From an email from Mark Locher: “I was looking over your website and think I have a bit of information on the exact location of Baustert’s Pool AKA “Kiski Park Pool”. You have it noted that it was somewhere behind the fire hall. Here’s a little story. Back in the late 80’s when I was in high school quite a few of us would skateboard in the pool. We called it Kiski Park Pool.”

“If you pull up https://www.historicaerials.com/viewer and type in Apollo, PA as your location then slide the map to the intersection of 66 and 380 . Click on aerials, then each year in the listings and enjoy your trip though time. The first copy paste screen shot is 1952. The dark triangle type object I believe is the pool. Please note that it IS copyrighted material so can not post – but if you do a membership for a month or 6 months I think you can download low res images. It might be cool to have aerials photos added for all of “places and buildings” on your list. The screen shot copy paste is Google Maps with an approximate pinned location of the pool.”

“I was not a fan of history growing up but have grown to love it over the years. I also metal detect as a hobby and do extensive research trying to find old maps and potential places to detect on public property and permission detecting on private property. That’s how I found the aerial website. If you need someone to detect a historic private property/business to find items for maybe a display I might be able to help. I live about 45 min away for the area now so would do my best. I do not detect in these drought conditions. The ground is too hard and do not want to hurt the grass in any way.”

From an email from Bill Ryder, formerly of Washington Township: “I lived in the upper part of the building beside the pool (it was a 4 bedroom apartment at the time) from 1971 to 73. The pool was indeed located near the Firehall as can be seen in this aerial photo from 1967.”

“In fact, the folks who ran the rides at the Fireman’s carnival in the early 70’s used to shower at the pool. I’m not sure when it first opened, but I’ve heard around 1910. It can be seen in aerial photos from 1939. It was located along Kiski Park Drive, with another entrance (dirt) off of Route 66. I never heard the pool referred to as Baustert’s, but I was young at the time, and there were Bausterts in the area. In the early 70’s there were 3 picnic pavilions, a ball field, a go-kart track (just behind the Fire Hall), paddle boats in the pond along 66, and another large building where dinners and dances were occasionally held. There was also miniature golf at an earlier time. The pool itself was large, wedge-shaped, gradually deepening to nine feet, with a low dive, a high dive, and a six-foot slide. There was also a small kiddie pool. The owner in the early 70s was Fritz Roszini of Washington Township. It was sold around 1974 and the new owner put in two tennis courts. Unfortunately, mainly due to age and the cost of upkeep, the pool closed down around 1978.”

From an email from Tammy Wolford Cohen, formerly of Washington Township: “The pictures of the Kiski Pool in its heyday are surreal thinking about how my dad used to swim in that pool in the 1950s/early 60s and I would skateboard in the ruins of it in the 1980s. Incredible! We used to have wooden ramps built inside the pool and skated the small bowl in the deep end, much of the surrounding perimeter of the pool was crumbling with grass starting to grow through the concrete and there was graffiti everywhere! My grandmother would play bingo at the Washington Township Firehall and we would hang out at the pool and skate every Friday night. I had the time of my life in that old pool! Do you know who owns that property now?”