Hearst Recreation Center

Beautiful pool- only drawback is that there are a lot of people who don’t respect the etiquette of lap lane swimming. Usually it’s a random dude who swims across the lanes and doesn’t consult with other swimmers on if we will do circle swimming or share lanes. Sometimes it is people who want to have social hour and chat alongside each other while doing a very, very slow breaststroke and then get upset when you swim around them. No hate on friendship-it is totally fine to be with your friends. I hang out with my friends at the pool in the deep end and tread water or hang on the side of the pool when we want to chat. DPR could have “social” swimmers move to the deep end so people who want to swim laps for exercise or therapy can do so efficiently and more people can use the lap lanes. That being said, it’s a great pool. Bring a big beach towel or be prepared to wait for a chair if that it something you need. Thanks DCDPR for adding another pool in the city!

3 years ago

Another disappointing example of DC public pools. I went to the outdoor pool over the weekend, they had 3-4 swim lanes which were good, at the most two ppl were swimming in a lane. But started to go swimming during the week over the lunch break thinking that it'd be even better to swim. First of all, they had only two lanes open, full of elderly ppl swimming super slow and just walking and doing exercises in the swim lanes (which felt as if an entire senior house was there) + full of kids from summer camps which was fine cause they weren't in the swim lanes. I was going for my cardio and doing my sets and drills but the main problem was swimming with three old ppl in one lane who either didn't know how to swim or were super slow and had the audacity to interrupt you while swimming faster saying swim slower and don't swim freestyle cause all we do is slow breaststroke so you should adjust to our speed while they had the whole side of a lane to themselves and complained to the lifeguards which made it unbearable. If you're looking to actually swim sets and drills outdoors, this is not the pool. It's just for a bunch of entitled seniors and elderlies during the week. Uh, DC public pools are a disaster!

3 years ago

Beautiful clean pool Good people working their It was the best best choice to remove the third yellow cord so people family with their baby’s and their kids can swim Comfortable It was too tight and I talk to their and we have the same suggestion Thank you again to give the neighbors swimming space It s 2 month outdoor pool supposed to be for family and friends If they want to be athletic back and forth swimming : WISON Aquatic center open for athletics people yayyyy enjoy Thank you for the wonderful neighborhood pool we really need it for our kids and us too

3 years ago

basketball court built on a slant - terrible. i don’t know if it’s a reserve kinda thing but teams come and just take up the entire soccer field and get mad when ur on.

2 years ago

No bathrooms, only place you could use was the school but they not allow anyone. My little 5yo had to use the bathroom during her sister’s soccer practice and she had to pee her pants.

6 years ago