A Pool by an Airport? Answer Man Says Yes.

As a native Washingtonian, I enjoyed your article on Washington-Hoover Airport. When my brother and I were about 5 and 6 respectively, my dad took us to an airport to watch the planes take off. Right across the parking lot was a public swimming pool where we would watch the swimmers. We were born in 1929 and 1930. Could this be the airport?

-- Pat Bailer, Silver Spring

We would not today, Answer Man is fairly certain, think of relaxing at an airport. Airports are places to be avoided -- the traffic, the lines. That was not necessarily the case 70 years ago, when aviation was still fairly new and exciting and people wanted to be connected to it, however obliquely.

The Airport Swimming Pool opened in July 1931. Among its investors were aviator Amelia Earhart and a well-born former Army pilot named Eugene Vidal, who directed the Commerce Department's aviation bureau and helped found several fledgling airlines. (He was also Gore Vidal's father.) The Washington Post reported that the pool had accommodations for 3,000 people and a 20,000-square-foot white sand beach. The huge basin -- "one of the largest reinforced concrete swimming pools in the East" -- was filled with salt water so bathers could enjoy "the equivalent of ocean water only a short distance from their homes."

The pool was the setting for swim meets, water polo tournaments, beauty pageants ("tall brunette" Toni Mann was chosen as Miss Airport in 1938) and other festive events. When The Washington Post wanted to introduce four new comic strips in 1933, it invited local children to a huge party at the Airport Pool. The price of admission was a copy of The Post's Sunday comics.

Of course, in a segregated Washington, there were some children who weren't invited, even if The Post was happy to sell them a paper. In its story after the party, The Post noted that "colored boys and girls were accommodated at the Twelfth Street YMCA, through the generous offer of Physical Director Arthur Green." Like Glen Echo's Crystal Pool, the Airport Pool was whites-only.

Overlooking the pool was another unusual feature: the Hangar Club, a nightspot that occupied space left empty when the Ludington Line airline moved out. "At 2 a.m. all roads lead to the Hangar Club," wrote The Post's nightlife correspondent. "Once within its portals visitors think nothing of dancing till daylight."

Fittingly, music was provided by Charley Dawson's Musical Pilots. Entertainers included the likes of Billy Ersig, "amazingly clever clarinetist-contortionist," and Archie Hawk, "the dancing copy boy." (The world is a grayer place for the loss of copy boys, dancing and otherwise.)

Debbie Levy of Potomac remembers hearing about the Hangar Club from her father, Harold, who ran it with his two older brothers, Bill and Bernie. "The stories my father used to tell of those days and nights," she wrote.

Late-night revelers in search of a respite from contorted clarinetists and dancing copy boys could stroll out to the club's balcony where, cooled by a breeze off the Potomac, they could watch the airmail planes landing.

Wrong Washington

Answer Man erred last week when he wrote that John Washington was descended from George Washington's brother Lawrence. As several readers pointed out, none of Lawrence's children survived to adulthood. John's branch of the family is descended from John Augustine Washington (1736-1787). In fact, John's doubly related. His grandfather's parents were third cousins and his great-grandmother was descended from another of George's brothers, Samuel.

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Curious about some bit of Washington trivia? Write answerman@washpost.com.