Playing by the Rules: Double Dipping

Double-Dipping:
The Free Bathing Service and other Swimming Projects

City Council's first recreation program for children - the "free bathing service" - dates from 1897. This project, controlled by the City Commissioner, the City Engineer, and finally the Property Commissioner, consisted of supervised free bathing stations and ferries. As many as five stations were located each summer along the waterfront and the Don River. The ferries, which ran through the 1927 season, transported mostly boys to the more isolated sites.

From 1921, the Toronto Transportation Commission's "free bathing car service" gave transit access to the free bathing ferries and (until 1950) the Sunnyside Free Bathing Station. The TTC's privately run predecessor, the Toronto Railway Company, launched this project about 1916.

Though only the Sunnyside Free Bathing Station remained by 1929, other swimming options existed. In 1920, the newly formed Toronto Life Saving & Police Patrol Service opened its first three "protected bathing areas" on the waterfront. At least 428,000 swimmers were cared for in 1927, and all of the popular beaches were marked out and guarded.

Indoors, the Parks Department ran Toronto's first summer swim program at Carlton Public School in 1922. The Board of Education assumed control of this project by the mid-1920s. In 1934, 15,560 children signed up for free lessons at 12 school pools.

Not all public facilities were free. The Parks Department charged fees at its bathing stations on Toronto Island and at Kew Beach; so did the Toronto Harbour Commission at its Sunnyside Bathing Pavilion & Swimming Tank. During the 1920s, City Council repeatedly asked the THC to abolish its charges. In turn, the THC demanded that the Property Department move its free bathing station away from the Pavilion. The Harbour Commission won on both fronts.

Index

Aboard the free bathing ferry "Elsie"

Submerged canoe, Sunnyside Free Bathing Station

Free bathing cars, Sunnyside Free Bathing Station

Swimmers, Don Free Bathing Station

Swimming lesson, Don Free Bathing Station

Š2001. City of Toronto