February 12, 2025 • 9 mins
Guest today is a former board President and current 501-c-7 leader of the Phillips Swim Club, Jim Donovan.
One of the first pools built in Cincinnati, it remains open today to individuals, couples, families and seniors through affordable memberships which pay to maintain the beloved neighborhood gathering spot.
Philipps Swim Club
5245 Glenway Avenue
Cincinnati, OH 45238
Click here for Philipps Swim Club's website
Become a member of Philipps SC
513-471-2280 [main]
513-325-4647 [off season]
philippsswimclub@gmail.com
One of the first pools built in Cincinnati, it remains open today to individuals, couples, families and seniors through affordable memberships which pay to maintain the beloved neighborhood gathering spot.
Philipps Swim Club
5245 Glenway Avenue
Cincinnati, OH 45238
Click here for Philipps Swim Club's website
Become a member of Philipps SC
513-471-2280 [main]
513-325-4647 [off season]
philippsswimclub@gmail.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm Sandy Collins. This is iHeart Cinci, a tri state
public affairs show. My next guest is a former board
president and current five oh one c seven leader of
the Phillips Swim Club here in Cincinnati. It's located on
Glenway Avenue for nearly one hundred years. Definitely a landmark
and a great place to visit in the summertime. It
remains open today to individuals, couples, families, and seniors who
(00:23):
want to have a place to call their own where
countless memories and friendships are formed over the years keeping
that community together. So let's welcome in. Jim Donovan, Welcome
to iHeart Cincy. Can you take us back to the beginning?
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Sure?
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Okay?
Speaker 4 (00:36):
I mean actually the pool has been in existence since
nineteen twenty nine, privately owned by the Phillips family up
until around the early eighties when it passed on to
the guy who owned Suregood Biscuit Company, and then he
was bought by Zeke Childers and Denise S.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Treehouse.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
They were formerly married, she's now the Commissioner of Hamilton
County and they decided, after running the pool for two
or three years, that it was something they couldn't continue
to do so they opted to close it. So a
bunch of us had heard in the spring of twenty
eleven that.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
The pool was going to close.
Speaker 4 (01:14):
Then we got together and said, we really can't have
this happen. It's such a great place. We've grown up.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Here, we want to continue to make it go.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
So we arranged with Zeke that we would rent the
pool from him and continue to operate it and we
would pay him rent.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
So that's where we're at now with it.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
That's where we are at now.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
We have all volunteer workforce that works in the spring
to get the pool ready during the pools opening. We
do pay our staff manager, assistant manager, snack bar and lifeguards,
and then we pay the taxes on it and we
pay the sales tax and we continue to make it go.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
But it's been an effort.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
We didn't really realize what we were getting into in
terms of painting and cocrete and would work and roofing,
et cetera.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
I would imagine it's certainly a definition of a labor
of love, right.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Oh, no doubt.
Speaker 4 (02:09):
A couple of years ago where replaced the original punk
that had been in existence.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
For what ninety one ninety two years wow.
Speaker 4 (02:16):
So we had trouble finding somebody that's still made pumps
like that, so we got that fixed.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
But that was a major enterprise.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
And the piping's all pretty old, so you've got chlorine
and salt and wear and tear on that. So there's
always something to fix, and we always need volunteers. So
we put out a notice to our members every spring
that come on up and get the pool ready. We
strapped chairs that are broken, and paint things and clean
up leaves and other trash.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
So it's definitely a neighborhood collaboration, if you will. For
folks that's never been a member of a private pool,
you know, most people have gone to public pools, or
they'd go to hotels or whatever. But what's the difference
in the field of being a member of a private pool.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
I think if you're a member, you have the feeling
that you have a stake in its success. And I
know a number of private pools around Cincinnati are having difficulty.
Quite a few of them have closed. We're all aware
of the Coney Island issue, and by the way, we
picked up four or five former Coney Island members this
past year and they were all really happy with our
(03:21):
operation and plan to come back, so we're hoping that
that spreads out a little bit. We share their sorrow
for what happened, but we welcome anybody who wants to
join our pool.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Because our membership is open. We encourage new members.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
If you refer somebody and they become a member, you
get a discount, so.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
It's a good operation.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
I was a member of a private pool when I
was a little kid. My father had passed away, and
my mom scraped together the money to get me a
pool membership in our neighborhood community pool, and that place
was my salvation as a child. I mean going down
there every day and swimming all day and exercise and
sun and sun burns. I learned I can't stay out
(04:04):
in the sun for a long time, but you know,
learned to swim there and made lifelong friendships. So it
really is so much more of being a member of
a pool than it is just going to a regular
community pool where you really don't know anybody.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
Well, I would agree, because I've made the point in
previous talks to people that it's two degrees of Phillips
on the west side of Cincinnati that you either went
there yourself or you know somebody who did. And like
you mentioned, with your childhood, we would walk four blocks
up to the pool. My mom would give us a
nickel for candy. You get two pieces of candy for
a penny, so that was a big deal. But we
(04:41):
swim all day, come home for dinner, go back at night.
We didn't have air conditioning, so that was our cooling
off place.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Today there are memberships for families, for individuals, for senior citizens.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
What are you doing about memberships at this point?
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Do you advertise or is it just you kind of
everyone knows that its membership season.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
No.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
I think we put out membership questions or membership request
every year. So basically as soon as the pool closes
and we remind people around Christmas is a great Christmas gift,
we put it out on Facebook as well as email
that come on up and join now avoid a price increase,
which thankfully we've been able to avoid until this year,
(05:25):
and put the word out. We don't want to bombard
people with oh, here they come again, But every four
or five weeks we put out requests for members and
it's interesting this year we put one out on New
Year's Eve, and I don't know what it was about
that day, but we got floods of requests. Yeah, so
a payment plan that if you put the money down,
you can pay it in installments up until the pool
(05:47):
opens on Memorial Day.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
So you're open about one hundred days in the summertime.
If I give or take, yeah, pretty much.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
I always regret the way the counter goes that I
wish Memorial Day were later and Labor Day later, but
sometimes it happens that we open when it's chilly and
we close when it's hot.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
But it's around one hundred days.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Yeah, is there any leeway there? I mean, can't you
stay open after Labor Day? There's no rule or anything.
Are you doing it just because of staffing and kids are.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Back to school or what?
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Yeah? Pretty much. We have kids that'll go back.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
With the way colleges and high schools start now, they're
going back second or third week of August. So we
have trouble staffing. Although one year, the year of the
COVID where we made our darnest efforts to get open,
we opened and.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
We said, well this is a COVID year.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
We extended it two more weekends and I don't know
how many members said, golly, I wish we could do
that every year because you and I know September can
be a.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Warm Oh yes, and sometimes October and last year November,
although we wouldn't want to be swimming in November for sure.
So you're located there at fifty two to forty five
Glenway Avenue. There's a website, there's all sorts of information
there and you can find out about memberships and payment
(07:05):
plans and get your family there because it is really
truly a life changing experience for a kid.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Oh, I would agree.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
I recall growing up that I would meet kids that
I didn't know from other schools because the swim team
we came from all over, so there was three or
four different high schools that fed into our swim team
five six seven eighth grade school, so made a lot
of friends that wouldn't have known otherwise.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Absolutely, And then of course you have events that you
can use the pool for, like you said, to weddings
and other parties.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
We've had a couple of weddings at the pool.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
In fact, my sister Mary was a judge retired judge
was his semi retired. She performed a wedding at the pool,
and the whole pool gathered around and watched the happy
couple walk out to one of the peers and take
their vows.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Okay, Jim, I got to ask. I got to ask.
Were they in bathing suits?
Speaker 2 (07:55):
I think they were. They were kind of with the
Hawaiian mote.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Okay, I'm just picturing, you know, the extreme funny way
of Oh.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
Yeah, there's somewhere our website or the Phillips website that
you can find these pictures.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
But it was. It was an event, no doubt. That
we've rented a pool out to people.
Speaker 4 (08:14):
If you have a large group, you can rent and
reserve certain areas of the pool for your group. Last
year we had one of the labor unions had their
picnic there.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Oh yeah, so give them a call that you can.
You can plan your summer stuff now with your company.
Oh yeah, get a hold of them all right, Jim.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
Donovan, thank you so much. Phillips Swim Club. It's at
fifty two to forty five Glenway Avenue.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
And if you are relatively new to Cincinnati and you
didn't grow up here, be like me and ask anybody
and they all say, oh.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
Yeah, I was there. Everybody was there at Philip Swim Club.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Thank you for the opportunity, Sandy.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
If you'd like to get more information about memberships at
Phillips Swim Club, the website is Phillipswimclub dot com. It's
a private pool with membership and information there, and a
summer full of fun is just around the corner.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
That's it for iHeart Sinsey for this week.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
I'm Sandy Collins, always looking for interesting people and places
and solutions for problems that we deal with here in
Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. If you have a suggestion for
a topic of guests or questions, just email me Iheartsinsey
with an I at iHeartMedia dot com.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Thanks for listening today. We'll see you next week. Oh
don't forget.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
You can hear the show on the iHeartRadio app just
look under podcasts.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
Iheartsincy is a production of iHeartMedia Cincinnati.
I'm Sandy Collins. This is iHeart Cinci, a tri state
public affairs show. My next guest is a former board
president and current five oh one c seven leader of
the Phillips Swim Club here in Cincinnati. It's located on
Glenway Avenue for nearly one hundred years. Definitely a landmark
and a great place to visit in the summertime. It
remains open today to individuals, couples, families, and seniors who
(00:23):
want to have a place to call their own where
countless memories and friendships are formed over the years keeping
that community together. So let's welcome in. Jim Donovan, Welcome
to iHeart Cincy. Can you take us back to the beginning?
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Sure?
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Okay?
Speaker 4 (00:36):
I mean actually the pool has been in existence since
nineteen twenty nine, privately owned by the Phillips family up
until around the early eighties when it passed on to
the guy who owned Suregood Biscuit Company, and then he
was bought by Zeke Childers and Denise S.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Treehouse.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
They were formerly married, she's now the Commissioner of Hamilton
County and they decided, after running the pool for two
or three years, that it was something they couldn't continue
to do so they opted to close it. So a
bunch of us had heard in the spring of twenty
eleven that.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
The pool was going to close.
Speaker 4 (01:14):
Then we got together and said, we really can't have
this happen. It's such a great place. We've grown up.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Here, we want to continue to make it go.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
So we arranged with Zeke that we would rent the
pool from him and continue to operate it and we
would pay him rent.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
So that's where we're at now with it.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
That's where we are at now.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
We have all volunteer workforce that works in the spring
to get the pool ready during the pools opening. We
do pay our staff manager, assistant manager, snack bar and lifeguards,
and then we pay the taxes on it and we
pay the sales tax and we continue to make it go.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
But it's been an effort.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
We didn't really realize what we were getting into in
terms of painting and cocrete and would work and roofing,
et cetera.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
I would imagine it's certainly a definition of a labor
of love, right.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Oh, no doubt.
Speaker 4 (02:09):
A couple of years ago where replaced the original punk
that had been in existence.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
For what ninety one ninety two years wow.
Speaker 4 (02:16):
So we had trouble finding somebody that's still made pumps
like that, so we got that fixed.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
But that was a major enterprise.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
And the piping's all pretty old, so you've got chlorine
and salt and wear and tear on that. So there's
always something to fix, and we always need volunteers. So
we put out a notice to our members every spring
that come on up and get the pool ready. We
strapped chairs that are broken, and paint things and clean
up leaves and other trash.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
So it's definitely a neighborhood collaboration, if you will. For
folks that's never been a member of a private pool,
you know, most people have gone to public pools, or
they'd go to hotels or whatever. But what's the difference
in the field of being a member of a private pool.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
I think if you're a member, you have the feeling
that you have a stake in its success. And I
know a number of private pools around Cincinnati are having difficulty.
Quite a few of them have closed. We're all aware
of the Coney Island issue, and by the way, we
picked up four or five former Coney Island members this
past year and they were all really happy with our
(03:21):
operation and plan to come back, so we're hoping that
that spreads out a little bit. We share their sorrow
for what happened, but we welcome anybody who wants to
join our pool.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Because our membership is open. We encourage new members.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
If you refer somebody and they become a member, you
get a discount, so.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
It's a good operation.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
I was a member of a private pool when I
was a little kid. My father had passed away, and
my mom scraped together the money to get me a
pool membership in our neighborhood community pool, and that place
was my salvation as a child. I mean going down
there every day and swimming all day and exercise and
sun and sun burns. I learned I can't stay out
(04:04):
in the sun for a long time, but you know,
learned to swim there and made lifelong friendships. So it
really is so much more of being a member of
a pool than it is just going to a regular
community pool where you really don't know anybody.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
Well, I would agree, because I've made the point in
previous talks to people that it's two degrees of Phillips
on the west side of Cincinnati that you either went
there yourself or you know somebody who did. And like
you mentioned, with your childhood, we would walk four blocks
up to the pool. My mom would give us a
nickel for candy. You get two pieces of candy for
a penny, so that was a big deal. But we
(04:41):
swim all day, come home for dinner, go back at night.
We didn't have air conditioning, so that was our cooling
off place.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Today there are memberships for families, for individuals, for senior citizens.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
What are you doing about memberships at this point?
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Do you advertise or is it just you kind of
everyone knows that its membership season.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
No.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
I think we put out membership questions or membership request
every year. So basically as soon as the pool closes
and we remind people around Christmas is a great Christmas gift,
we put it out on Facebook as well as email
that come on up and join now avoid a price increase,
which thankfully we've been able to avoid until this year,
(05:25):
and put the word out. We don't want to bombard
people with oh, here they come again, But every four
or five weeks we put out requests for members and
it's interesting this year we put one out on New
Year's Eve, and I don't know what it was about
that day, but we got floods of requests. Yeah, so
a payment plan that if you put the money down,
you can pay it in installments up until the pool
(05:47):
opens on Memorial Day.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
So you're open about one hundred days in the summertime.
If I give or take, yeah, pretty much.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
I always regret the way the counter goes that I
wish Memorial Day were later and Labor Day later, but
sometimes it happens that we open when it's chilly and
we close when it's hot.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
But it's around one hundred days.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Yeah, is there any leeway there? I mean, can't you
stay open after Labor Day? There's no rule or anything.
Are you doing it just because of staffing and kids are.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Back to school or what?
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Yeah? Pretty much. We have kids that'll go back.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
With the way colleges and high schools start now, they're
going back second or third week of August. So we
have trouble staffing. Although one year, the year of the
COVID where we made our darnest efforts to get open,
we opened and.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
We said, well this is a COVID year.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
We extended it two more weekends and I don't know
how many members said, golly, I wish we could do
that every year because you and I know September can
be a.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Warm Oh yes, and sometimes October and last year November,
although we wouldn't want to be swimming in November for sure.
So you're located there at fifty two to forty five
Glenway Avenue. There's a website, there's all sorts of information
there and you can find out about memberships and payment
(07:05):
plans and get your family there because it is really
truly a life changing experience for a kid.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Oh, I would agree.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
I recall growing up that I would meet kids that
I didn't know from other schools because the swim team
we came from all over, so there was three or
four different high schools that fed into our swim team
five six seven eighth grade school, so made a lot
of friends that wouldn't have known otherwise.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Absolutely, And then of course you have events that you
can use the pool for, like you said, to weddings
and other parties.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
We've had a couple of weddings at the pool.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
In fact, my sister Mary was a judge retired judge
was his semi retired. She performed a wedding at the pool,
and the whole pool gathered around and watched the happy
couple walk out to one of the peers and take
their vows.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Okay, Jim, I got to ask. I got to ask.
Were they in bathing suits?
Speaker 2 (07:55):
I think they were. They were kind of with the
Hawaiian mote.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Okay, I'm just picturing, you know, the extreme funny way
of Oh.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
Yeah, there's somewhere our website or the Phillips website that
you can find these pictures.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
But it was. It was an event, no doubt. That
we've rented a pool out to people.
Speaker 4 (08:14):
If you have a large group, you can rent and
reserve certain areas of the pool for your group. Last
year we had one of the labor unions had their
picnic there.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Oh yeah, so give them a call that you can.
You can plan your summer stuff now with your company.
Oh yeah, get a hold of them all right, Jim.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
Donovan, thank you so much. Phillips Swim Club. It's at
fifty two to forty five Glenway Avenue.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
And if you are relatively new to Cincinnati and you
didn't grow up here, be like me and ask anybody
and they all say, oh.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
Yeah, I was there. Everybody was there at Philip Swim Club.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Thank you for the opportunity, Sandy.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
If you'd like to get more information about memberships at
Phillips Swim Club, the website is Phillipswimclub dot com. It's
a private pool with membership and information there, and a
summer full of fun is just around the corner.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
That's it for iHeart Sinsey for this week.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
I'm Sandy Collins, always looking for interesting people and places
and solutions for problems that we deal with here in
Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. If you have a suggestion for
a topic of guests or questions, just email me Iheartsinsey
with an I at iHeartMedia dot com.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Thanks for listening today. We'll see you next week. Oh
don't forget.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
You can hear the show on the iHeartRadio app just
look under podcasts.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
Iheartsincy is a production of iHeartMedia Cincinnati.
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