From a turkey wire fence to three pools

Wedgewood Swim Club has been a West Chester summer habit for generations. One Google reviewer remembers walking to the club from Beechwood Road between 1963 and 1973. Another was a lifeguard there for years and watched the next generation do the same. The club's own history page, kept by members, shows how it got here.

1957 and 1958: a club organized by its members

The first recorded meeting to organize the club took place in October 1957. In April 1958 the members signed a contract with Sapphire Pools for a 25 yard L-shaped pool, a baby pool, an office and a breezeway, for $29,789.00. The land was purchased from Cecil C. Goodwin that May. By June there were 66 families.

In July 1958 the members built the bath house themselves. The history page notes that one beer can from the wall still remains, which is the kind of detail only a member-built club keeps. The pool officially opened in August 1958. The first fence was made of turkey wire, and the first annual meeting was held that September at Westtown Thornbury School.

The first decade

• 1959: guest fees were set at $1 for adults and 50 cents for children, and the pool received operation permit #2132.
• 1960: the swim team had 51 members and a first season record of one win and five losses. The driveway and parking circle cost $1,513.00.
• 1963: Douglas R. Bickley resigned as a member. He held bond #1.
• 1967: the pavilion was built with membership funds.

The bond Bickley held is still how membership works. Wedgewood is bond-based, and the Board handles bond redemption through a form on the club's site. The pavilion from 1967 is still where families gather out of the sun, and where the ice cream is sold at three in the afternoon.

Building the second and third pools

In 1987 the club added new grills and built the lower pool, by Vincent Pools, for $125,000.00. That pool is now the 25 meter, six-lane pool where the Wedgewood Whales practice and where swimmers who have passed the deep water test go to swim laps. In 1996 the club built a new baby pool with Carlton Pools, the one that sits beside the pavilion today. In 1998 a new bathhouse went up, built by Steve Schultheis and Dennis Inverso, and the facilities page notes that it includes a family and handicapped bathroom and shower.

Keeping an old pool young

The original 1958 steel upper pool was removed in 2003 and rebuilt with plaster. It is the main pool you see today: L-shaped, 75 by 36 feet, with a diving well, a diving board and a water slide. Between 2005 and 2009 the club rebuilt its electrical system, installed a new check-in computer and added a volleyball net, wall ball, shuffleboard and a terrace with pavers. It also started a recycling program, installed security cameras in 2009 and replaced the starting blocks.

Check-in has its own small history. In 2002 membership cards with member photos replaced the sign-in book. Today the photo lives in the member's online account, and the Front Desk matches faces to accounts at the breezeway.

A club that still belongs to its members

The structure has not changed. Wedgewood is member-owned and member-run, with a Board of Directors elected each August in an online vote, and members in good standing can be nominated. The Board sets the policies, the staff run the days, and families fill the volunteer roles on the swim team and on the social committee. It is a lot of work for a summer pool, and it is why the grounds look the way they do.

In 2026 the club is 68 years past its opening. If you are on the wait list, you are waiting to join something that members have been building and fixing since before the first fence went up. Questions about membership go to the Board at wedgewoodbod@gmail.com, and our article on how joining works explains the rest.