Winston-Salem's Crystal Lake

[Myles Away]

I know this is the wrong forum to ask about Winston-Salem but can anyone tell me more about Crystal Lake? Is it still there? What was it like years ago?

I found this on the place:

Crystal Lake meant the place for a cool refreshing dip, or dancing to beach music on the Juke box with a favorite date on a summer afternoon.

Along with the Olympic-size swimming pool, which included an observation deck to watch swimming and diving, there was also a boating lake, and a dance hall.

The diving tower was said to be the highest in the state. In addition, in the pool area, there was a huge water wheel and a large fountain. Crystal Lake was built around 1923, and continuously operated until the 1970's.

I've been told this was once the largest city in North Carolina and built some large attractions during the 20's. I want to visit some of these places now that I'm a resident here. I did find a some photos of the place but the forum won't let me post them. It gives an IMG tag error message. It looks sweet in the photos!

[monsoon]

[yadkinv]

You are correct Mylws Away, Crystal Lake was the place to go in the summer. There was a great upstairs pavilion with a juke box, and lots of room for dancing overlooking one of the two "crystal lakes", which were of course usually grennish muddy. The diving platform had a 24 ft, 16 ft, and 8 ft, along with two pool side mounted (one on each side) 3 ft boards. The two 3 ft. boards, of course, along with the 8 ft. were spring boards whilst the 16 ft. and 24 ft. were boards extending over the pool but staionary. There was a rumor that there was at one time a 32 ft., but I cannot verify that. Sometome in the 1960's the 24 ft. was removed, too dangerous.

There was a waterwheel, and it too was dangeorus, and was eventually removed. The pool was enormous, at least 50 feet in length, slightly curved, a walled children's area, and had a slightly peculiar look in that it always looked old, and had cracks here and there. There was a great concession stand, but soft drinks only, no beer.

In the 1950,s , it was just beyond the city limits on Reynolda Road, and just before what is or was (I'm not sure) Reynolda Plaza Shopping Center, about 10 miles before Old Town. Of course, all of that is now inside the city.

It was always a private, family owned facility; there were no city run pools until the 1980's.

[Allan]

Thanks for the info, Yadkinv! And welcome to the forum .

[Matthew]

It sounds like a great place! For those of you who do have photos, I can host the photos! It's no problem. I want to see them anyways.

[dockaos]

A bit late on replying to this topic, but was surprised to see a mention of Crystal Lake while performing a Google search...

I used to go to Crystal Lake as a kid in the 1970s. It was a favorite haunt of my father's when he was a boy, as well. As has been noted, there were a couple of greenish ponds. Boats were available for rent at the larger of the two, although the watercraft never looked particularly seaworthy. At the shallow end of the pool was a water "fountain", which was large enough for a few people to get under. Most of the pool surface was painted in a metallic silver color, with the exception of the deep end where the diving tower was located. It was painted in an ominous black color, which always made it seem deeper than it was. The wall at the shallow end of the pool was painted to look as if it had been made from stones. There was an advertisement for Mountain Dew (I think) soft drink painted on the same wall.

Sadly, the pool closed down sometime in the late-70s. I seem to remember something about one of the owners passing away. The land was later sold to a land development company who bulldozed the pool to make way for The Corners at Crystal Lake apartments. The apartment complex is located on Reynolda Road. Interestingly enough, the developers did see fit to retain the larger of the two ponds and built a picnic area around it.

I really miss the place. A trip there was like taking a mini-vacation.