A Pool Would be Nice in Delaware Park [BUFFALO: THEN AND NOW]

Wouldn't it be nice to cool off in a pool on a hot summer day at Delaware Park? Back in the day, you could!

This photo, borrowed from the Library of Congress, was taken sometime between 1850 and 1920.

We can’t be certain (after all, we’re in radio, not history), but we hypothesize that the old wading pool sat at the same site Hoyt Lake does today. Our reasoning is this: Frederick Law Olmsted planned Delaware Park in 1868, while the Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane (known as the H.H. Richardson Complex today) was built in 1870. Perhaps it’s possible that the steeple in the photo is one of the Asylum’s first to go up.