By Kali Morgan, Summer 2024

Kelly Pool is listed at 42nd St. & Parkside Ave., 19131.
It is not on Parkside Avenue, nor is it near 42nd Street. It is off Lansdowne Drive in West Fairmount Park, tucked behind Memorial Hall / the Please Touch Museum.
Phone: (215) 685-0174
Kelly Pool (Unofficial) Facebook

Olympic-sized rectangular pool with 8 lane lines (3 dedicated lanes for lap swimming only)
Depth: 3 to 7 feet
Ladders for water entry and exit
Wheelchair lift had dead battery Summer 2024
3 dedicated lap swimming lanes at all times!
Porta potty changing area (the indoor bathrooms were out of service)
New outdoor showers
Grassy area next to pool deck for sunbathing
Personal belongings allowed on pool deck grass
Good luck calling for info – staff doesn’t seem to have access to phones

#MyPhillyPoolTour2024
JULY 17, 2024 – UPDATE
Some friends told me that Kelly Pool Fairmount Park was officially open, but the City’s website indicates that it is closed.
I called the pool to double check that they had a wheelchair lift (the City site indicated it might), but nobody answered, and the recording indicated that Kelly Pool would be closed until further notice.
I’m far enough in the game by now to know not to trust this message, since I had heard firsthand of people swimming there last week.
I got to the pool with my two friends, who agreed to come on my information that there was a wheelchair lift if we needed help exiting the pool. But the wheelchair lift is being rebuilt and was not at the pool. In the end, we took our chances with the ladders (which worked, thankfully).
I wish that Hunting Park Pool had permanent lap lanes set up the way Kelly Pool does. This really is the only pool in Philly where you could (if you wanted to become a lifeguard) actually practice swimming regulation-length laps outdoors in the summer at any hour the pool is open. And even with three permanently designated lap lanes (one for slow swimmers, one for medium-speed swimmers and one for fast), the pool is plenty big to handle guests who just wants to splash and play.

I spotted at least five queer couples in the pool area with PDAs (of about 20 couples/ families swimming), so that was really nice. Lots of diversity in age, familial structure and swimsuit fashion.
No issues with bringing your bags into the pool or laying a blanket out on the ample grassy area surrounding the pool. Lots of folks lying down and cuddling on blankets.
In spite of the erroneous information from the City that this pool is closed, it was indeed open and filled with very cool people, literally and figuratively. I checked in with staff to tell them about the voicemail message and they shrugged. “We don’t have access to the phone,” I was told. Yikes.
The lap lanes are a huge bonus feature of this Olympic-length pool. You’re not allowed to use the lap lanes unless you are actually swimming laps. I managed to paddle across once without dipping my injured ear into the water, but by the time I reached the other end of the pool, I was not fit to swim back and departed from the lap lines myself.
By the pool gate are porta-johns to change/use toilet, including an ADA-sized one.
There are several more small porta-johns behind the pool area.
There’s not much shade in the pool itself, so the water was not super cold.
The pool deck showers are shiny and new.

PREVIOUS VISIT
The splash fountain is dry, but the pool is filling up! This pool used to be the first one open, on Memorial Day, with a mayor jumping in each year to kick off the summer swim season.
I’m surprised that it is not already open since they filled it in February for a “Philly Phreeze” fundraiser to hire lifeguards. (I woulda been tempted a tiny bit to participate but didn’t know about it til after it happened.)
I’m glad it’s filling up finally! My friends have been trying to go but reported a dry pool, which was sad.
Looks like it goes up to 7 feet deep. No steps, which is a surprise, but according to the City website, it had a wheelchair lift last year — so hopefully?
When I came here as a kid, as part of summer theater camp in 1976, I am pretty sure there were three pools (like at Lawncrest and others), so I’m surprised that they made one giant pool with no steps. Or maybe they just got rid of the diving pool and the kiddie pool and left the main pool — I can’t recall or say for sure. For some reason I seem to remember an indoor pool performance at Memorial Hall that week of camp in the summer of ’76, so go figure (but they could have bused us anywhere, which was part of the fun). I digress…
Not sure what the situation will be in terms of bringing in goods or having chairs. There is a large grassy area so hopefully they let you bring your bags and lay out blankets.