Need Help, Central Park Wading Pool Mural

[TheArtist]

I may have asked this before but couldn't find the thread.

I am getting ready to paint 2 new murals for the Central Center at Central Park.  One is intended to show how Central Park might have looked "back in the day" when it had a wading pool.  I was just getting ready to get started when one of the people working there said I had my rendering backwards, such that the pool house was north of the pool instead of how I have it being South of the pool.  I have searched every way I can, online, Beryl Ford Collection, gone to the Historical Society, the Central Library, etc. to no avail.  Spoke to a relative and best she can remember it (she used to walk from downtown to Longfellow to go to school but she isn't 100% certain she remembers correctly) the pool was as I have it in the rendering.  And too, the person at the Central Center remembers the modern version of the wading pool that was made of cement and was more contemporary in design.  I would assume the new one would have been built in the same layout as the old one, but there again, neither of us can be certain of that.

Here is how I have it.  The actual mural will be done in color and in a WPA style.  Does anyone remember, or have a relative that remembers how the pool and building would have faced? Would it have been this way, or completely reversed?



A postcard I found.


And the best photo I have found after a LOT of searching. At best I can tell from the poles shadow that the pool does have a N-S orientation and not E-W, but the particular direction N-S or S-N would depend on if the pic is in the morning, or evening.


I can lay money on it that, if I paint the mural one way without having some certainty of which direction the pool goes, then every little old lady in town will suddenly show up and start complaining to the city that the way I have it is wrong lol.  

Here is the other rendering that is for the second mural. Shows 5th street during the 30s when Longfellow was there and the trolley went by. Any corrections or points on this one are welcome as well. One question on this too, anyone know the color of the trolley?  Would there have been any difference to the sides of the trolleys. The original photo was of the trolley going to the right, I had to mirror image it to make it work in this image, but I am guessing that the doors/opening, on either side would be the same, or would it not have had a door on that side?

[Conan71]

Slightly O/T, how long ago was the pool demolished? 

[TheArtist]

Slightly O/T, how long ago was the pool demolished?  

I don't know.  The original one looks to have been there during the 40s and 50s, perhaps even the 30s. It was a Reed Wading Pool.  I believe Reed, who made his money in oil, go figure lol, ended up making a bunch of them all over the country.  But then it was apparently demolished or remodeled, perhaps during the 50s or 60s, and that one could have been there until the 70s. I think it was during the 70s that public wading pools were "outlawed" in Tulsa in favor of splash pads.  The things you learn just to do a painting lol.

[AquaMan]

I think I wrote to you on a PM about this. I swam in that pool as a youth in the 50's and went by there every day in high school in the late 60's. It was a deep wading pool during that time. Brown brick, two buildings connected with a breezeway on the South side of the pool. IOW, the pool was closer to the 6th street side.

They started to replace the wading pools with spray pads starting in the mid to late 70's because of the cost of lifeguards and the concern over correctly sanitizing the pools. The building itself reminded me of 30's/40's design.

I had never seen the Grecian style till you posted it. I will call my mom tonight and see what she knows.

[TheArtist]

I think I wrote to you on a PM about this. I swam in that pool as a youth in the 50's and went by there every day in high school in the late 60's. It was a deep wading pool during that time. Brown brick, two buildings connected with a breezeway on the South side of the pool. IOW, the pool was closer to the 6th street side.

They started to replace the wading pools with spray pads starting in the mid to late 70's because of the cost of lifeguards and the concern over correctly sanitizing the pools. The building itself reminded me of 30's/40's design.

I had never seen the Grecian style till you posted it. I will call my mom tonight and see what she knows.

Well that makes it 3 to 1.  I think the pool was closer to 6th, you do and my aunt does, its only the guy at the central center who thinks it was the other way lol.  But check with your mom and see what she says.

[dbacks fan]

Well that makes it 3 to 1.  I think the pool was closer to 6th, you do and my aunt does, its only the guy at the central center who thinks it was the other way lol.  But check with your mom and see what she says.

I'm going to take a guess on the orientation of the picture. I agree that it's a N-S orientation, but something makes me think that the benches at one end are on the south end. My logic is that in the early summer, and the late summer this area would be shaded by the structure and the trees surounding it. With the shadows, if it is a N-S orientation, this picture was probably taken in late June because the shadows are directly in line with the benches during the summer solstice. Also if you look at the sunlight on the trees around the structure they have sunlight shining on the leaves.

[Red Arrow]

Here is the other rendering that is for the second mural. Shows 5th street during the 30s when Longfellow was there and the trolley went by. Any corrections or points on this one are welcome as well. One question on this too, anyone know the color of the trolley?  Would there have been any difference to the sides of the trolleys. The original photo was of the trolley going to the right, I had to mirror image it to make it work in this image, but I am guessing that the doors/opening, on either side would be the same, or would it not have had a door on that side?

The trolley you show probably will be OK mirrored.  Later trolleys not necessarily so.  I looked in my copy of When Oklahoma Took the Trolley but could not find any definitive pictures.  All the pictures are in B/W.  Best I can do for you. 

[AquaMan]

Well that makes it 3 to 1.  I think the pool was closer to 6th, you do and my aunt does, its only the guy at the central center who thinks it was the other way lol.  But check with your mom and see what she says.

My Mom doesn't remember ever seeing the Grecian styled pool. She did however think the more recent pool was on the South side of the brick structure. I strongly remember it on the 6th street side of the buildings and since I actually swam there as a child I am going to over rule her! The style of the latest building there was very similar to the one south of the old Kendall elementary. It also was located to face a busy street, Delaware.

[TheArtist]

  Well, whatever the case may be, most people seem to think it faced the way I have it, and since I have already started, thats the way its going to be lol. But there is at least one thing I am 90% certain of, nobody is gonna come up with any proof otherwise cause I have looked and looked and looked and didnt find a thing.