Seashore Pool, Levagood Park

Photos in this section courtesy of City of Dearborn, Down River Sunday Times, and the Dearborn Free Press. 

Seashore Pool, Levagood Park, Dearborn, MI. (1954-1960). This was the place I spent most hot summer afternoons and nights. The center diving tower was in 15 feet of water. Swimming to the tower the first time was a test of manhood as you past one of four gate keeping lifeguards. The pool was open to 10 PM each night and the enter was  all aglow with underwater lights that made swimming mystical. There were also four very tall, stainless steel water lubricated slides in the shallows that shot you into the air 3 feet above the water like a skipping stone. A few summers I claimed to be the first swimmer to the tower for the season. 

When I was swimming to the tower I never saw this. Usually there were ugly guy lifeguards on duty giving kids like me the evil eye, "What are you doing out here, kid?" Had this been the case I'm sure to have made it to the tower years before my time. I think this was an editorial picture that sold the mostly male taxpayers not to complain too much about the tax increase.

This was taken before the tower was painted and before there was water in the pool. Notice the three levels of diving platforms. The tallest was ten-feet off the water. There were two of these multi-tier platforms, plus two spring boards. The challenge, aways was to "touch the bottom" which was a long way down—15 feet at the deepest. And yes, there were life guards everywhere, all the time.