Harry Thomas Community Center

Eh. This is the CVS of DC public pools. It does it’s job… But it’s not somewhere you’re excited to go to. At best, you will find apathetic, underpaid teenage staff. At worst, unruly children (my Kryptonite).
Again– not somewhere to go out of your way, but completely serviceable as a pool.

The pool itself is great and not crowded… However I don’t think I’d leave children unattended. One of the pool patrons hit a lifeguard with the flotation device, threw a chair in the pool, and threw a ball at another lifeguard’s head.
It took forever for someone to kick him out where he proceeded to just go to the basketball court and yell the f word at people at the pool.

I moved to DC in July of last year so I am new here. That being said, I was unemployed for all of July in DC. (Aka I have been to every pool, pond, bay, river, yes RIVER, that DC has to offer). This pool is the shit. I don’t have a car and I live in the northeast so it’s an easy walk to the pool. There is never anyone there, literally ever. Weekends bring some young parents and their kids and afternoons bring some teens but always a laid back crowd. As with other DC pools the staff can be somewhat umm. Disjointed in their rules for the day/​whether you need ID/​what you can bring in/​what time they open. But once you are in there is always a seat and it beats the freaking ungodly heat this town has. So come on over, partly because I really do recommend it and partly because there is no one for me to watch when I go, and really why go to the pool if not to people watch. See you there!!!

Its a free pool with reserved lap lanes. The facility is not the nicest, but its functional.
The good:
— Super convenient location (at least for me)
— reserved lap lanes
— On days, its never crowded
— Large locker rooms with plenty of space
— Lots of lounge chairs on deck
The bad:
— Locker rooms are pretty grungy. Always have standing water
— Different lifeguards have different interpretations of the rules
— There can be a large number of seemingly unsupervised kids splashing around and spilling into the lap lanes.
— On weekends, it can be impossible to find an open chair
— They’re only open for 2 months (half way through June to half way through August)
— Its a pretty ugly looking pool facility. Everything is concrete and old and halfway overgrown with weeds.

I love this pool. I came on a Wednesday night after work, so this review has nothing to do with the scene on the weekends, though I will try to make it on Sunday before it closes. The facilities are great — locker rooms are much nicer than Haines Point and Banneker — not the same amount of standing water and general feeling of gross. The pool is large and there are two lanes for lap swimming. The pool was nearly empty and super clean. Love this place! Great for swimming after work.

This is one of the worst Rec Centers in town. The grounds are not wheelchair accessible. It is always dirty, broken glass everywhere and just awful.
Nowhere to take kids… oh, wait… is that pit full of mulch for children to play in? Ah, sorry, i thought it was a dog pen or something. No shade? No driking fountain? No landscape?
Ah, there’s a pool… That’s why you get one star.

We live near here and have been multiple times to the pool. We always have problems with the staff — arguing with us about what we can wear (they’re always wrong), the manager leaves her young daughter unattended (contrary to pool rules) and just general unpleasantness.
The pool itself is nice and there is a decent kids pool which is fenced. There is no shade though they were supposed to bring umbrellas near the end of the season (I don’t know if they did.)
I hope next summer staff is better trained.
The playground is passable though set back from the road so it’s sort of isolated. The field is a nice place to run around but dogs are not allowed. The rec center itself doesn’t advertise any classes so I’m not sure what’s available.

Our neighbor told us about the glory that is DC public pools (at least, the newer, cleaner iterations from the Fenty administration). He prefers the Georgetown location, but we decided to give HT, much closer to us, a try.
We were SHOCKED when we walked in at opening time at 1 pm a recent weekday and there were only… two…other people. The pool remained relatively empty for the first hour (until the onslaught of eight loud children and one mother, oy vey). But for the entire time we were there, there were no more than 25 people total. Amazing!
The pool is clean (kiddie wading pool was closed) and there are lounge chairs a-​plenty. Young and old alike come here to enjoy the cool waters (ok, not super cool, but anything feels refreshing on a 100+ degree day).
As a former lifeguard, however, I was APPALLED at the lack of professionalism and know-​how of the two guards who switched duty every half hour or so. Public pool, country club, or ocean, the same expectations should apply to all lifeguards. One, the younger guy, never took his HEADPHONES out of his ears, and was more often than not on his PHONE. Little kids were running around the pool (there is a clearly posted «no running» sign) but he paid no attention. The older lifeguard, when on duty, took a little more care to fulfill the duties of his position, but still… it was really concerning to see.
Anyway, still a nice pool to come to for a refreshing dip or lap swim. Our tax dollars at work!

I don’t live in a condo or similarly-​amenities-​laden residence in DC. My doorperson is a metal gate and, until recently, my swimming pool was the cat food tins our upstairs neighbor leaves strewn in the backyard.
But then I found out that I live two blocks from the free public swimming pool at the Harry Thomas Sr. Recreation Center.
It’s not the public swimming pool that fellow DCites talk about going to in order to be seen — I’d sooner be caught at a Starbucks than caught in a swimsuit there — the swimming pool I speak of is much more low key. There’s a kiddie pool and lots of neighborhood kids, and the majority of the pool is under 5 feet deep. There are deck chairs, lifeguards, and just enough shade to stake out a spot to sunbathe in.
Summer hours are late-​but-​long (1pm-​8pm M-​F), with the last hour being adult swim time. Lifeguards regularly call «everybody out!» to switch shifts, creating a natural turnover, but they won’t hassle you if you end up deck chair warming like me.
Oh, and, pool aside, the center has a pretty extensive list of recreational options. Per the website (and in plain sight of the pool): a baseball diamond, basketball court, tennis court, and playground. There’s a computer lab and ‘multipurpose room’ tucked in to the actual center that I’ve yet to check out but my neighbor raves about the twice weekly Zumba class there.
All-​in-​all, the Harry Thomas Recreation Center makes my neighborhood a little sweeter, and is definitely making my summer that much more awesome.
Now who wants to go to the pool with me?