By Kali Morgan, Summer 2024

Barry Pool is located at 1800 Johnston St., 19145.
Phone: (215) 685-1886
Barry Playground Facebook

Polygonal pool (medium rectangle with elongated tot section on one side)
Depth: 2 to 5 feet
Warm water, direct sunlight
Belongings must be kept outside of pool deck in neighboring playground
Men’s and women’s rooms accessible from outside of rec center
Working wheelchair lift!

#MyPhillyPoolTour2024
JULY 9, 2024
Today I toured South Philly pools with a South Philly buddy. We hit Barry Pool at the recommendation of a parent at Murphy Pool, where we began today’s pool jumping journey. The pool is visible from the Bigler Street (south) side of the playground, but you enter from the 18th Street side, by the rec center building.
No shoes or towels or anything except for swimsuits are allowed in the pool area, so we had to leave all of our belongings on the grass outside the pool entrance.
This was the first pool this season where I saw what looks like a functional wheelchair lift, and I was assured that it does in fact work!
Maximum depth about five feet, with a two-foot shallow section for tots.
I did not see steps.
(I got permission to take photos of the chair lift, but only managed to get pictures of the cement – I’m finding it really difficult to shoot photos on my phone in the sun when I cannot see my screen and also my phone memory is full again.)

For restrooms and changing, there are single-stall men’s and women’s rooms accessible from the outside of the back of rec center. It was today’s most crowded pool when I visited around 2pm, but I’ve noticed that in the heat of day that seems to be about the most crowded hour of every pool I have gone this summer. On our exit I saw why there was a giant pile of shoes at the gate — the pavement and blacktop are HOT on bare feet.
I remember walking several blocks to and from the pool barefoot when I was a kid. I do remember that the blacktop was always hotter than the sidewalk, but these pool visits have me wondering how I ever made it across the street much less down 10 blocks.