By Finn B. Radner
May 12, 2023
The towerlike structure at the back of the pool once connected to the bridge. The remnants of this connection can still be seen in the brickwork today.
Throughout the history of DHS, many areas have been repurposed and altered to serve the changing needs of our school. However, some areas have not been as lucky to see new life with renovations and upgrades. Most notably, for over 30 years, a bridge once connected the DHS building with the pool across the street.
The story of this bridge is one marred by constraint and obsolescence. It was only open to students for a few early years of its operational life and met an unglamorous end long after its usefulness waned.
The pool bridge was built around 1976 along with the pool itself and countless other parts of DHS as part of a major upgrade to school facilities. And for a few brief years after its opening, the pool was a consequential part of student life at DHS. Many students, as part of their physical education curriculum, spent some of their gym classes swimming at the pool, and would use the bridge to get to and from classes. And, for members of the swim team, the bridge was used as a classroom when such a space was needed.
Many other students, such as current pool director Karen O’Connell, also worked at the pool. Juju Mucciaccio, the town Parks & Recreation director at the time and namesake of the pool, expected these students to spend their studies working at the pool. For them, this bridge served as an essential part of their daily run to make it to and from the pool on time.
To attempt to understand the history of this bridge, I spoke to Mrs. Megan, the coach of Dedham’s swim team. According to her, a law was passed in the 1980s which limited property taxes across Massachusetts. This law, known as proposition 2½, was designed to level the playing field by limiting how much individual towns can tax property. In Dedham, this meant shutting down the bridge for budgetary reasons. Furthermore, since swimming was removed from the physical education curriculum, there was no need for students to cross it on a regular basis.
And so, for much of the bridge’s lifespan, it actually sat unused—its existence unknown to a large proportion of DHS’s student body. And then, around 2011, the bridge was torn down with the construction of the new Avery. Mr. Haluska, the teacher for wood shop and other engineering classes, told me that on that day, he was told about the demolition with little warning and so he and his students went in and collected the valuable oak railings from inside the bridge. These railings still survive to this day and are used for a number of purposes by the woodshop students.
A piece of the old oak railing from the pool bridge.
The Pool Bridge can be clearly seen in this Aerial Photo
Here, little can be seen of the pool bridge, but its distinctive rooftop units can be discerned.
Today, few photos of the bridge survive. It is visible in a few aerial photographs of the school and in the background of a few yearbook photos, but I could not find any color photos showing the bridge in high definition. However, a number of images of the bridge as well as first hand accounts of its existence provide an idea of what it was like.
To begin, the bridge only had a few windows—just 3 thin windows on each side of the structure. These windows are faintly visible in some photos, but they were there. Additionally, the bridge was painted a darker red color than the rest of the school as seen by its unique darkness in some photos and by a slight glimpse of the corner of it in others. And lastly, the inside of the bridge was wider than that of the other bridges as a variety of sources have told me. In fact, it was wide enough that many track students would run hurdles through it. Through these details, while the pool bridge remains elusive, it is possible to form an idea of what it looked like and what it was like to cross.
In this old floor plan of DHS, the Pool Bridge can be clearly seen.
After months of searching, this black and white photo of the bridge was the best photo I can find. While the quality is still not perfect, the three slits where windows sat can be seen, as well as two rooftop units and the support structures that held up the bridge. While other photos are likely out there, I suspect they may be nearly impossible to access, so this appears to me to be the best accessible photo of the pool bridge that survives to this date, and possibly the only surviving photo to show the bridge in its entirety.
Lastly, the passages at either end of the bridge that once led to it still exist. On the DHS Side, a hallway still exists at the back of the athletic wing, which is currently used as a storage room behind two locked doors. This hallway would have once connected directly to the pool bridge and shared many interior elements with it, giving us another idea of what the inside of the bridge may have looked like.
Where this drywall stands, this room once continued to the pool.
This hallway, which once led to the pool, now serves as a storage area.
The doors to the old Pool Bridge up close.
And, on the poolside, a stairwell still exists that once led to the bridge. Today, this stairwell appears as a tower at the back of the pool with no apparent reason to exist. It contains a dimly lit staircase that today goes nowhere and is used for storage for the pool's annual haunted house.
This metal barrier once prevent students from crossing the pool bridge to access DHS after school.
This hallway once led to the pool bridge from the pool.
This door from the pool bridge's stairwell still provides roof access for the facility.
Views of the stairwell that once led to the pool bridge.
Mirror Investigative Team Members climbing the stairwell.
Storage atop the stairwell.
Like the other end of the bridge, the hold left by the pool bridge's demolition was filled in with drywall.
Even though the pool bridge did not see a glamorous life of consistent use by the school, it was still one of the most fascinating parts of our school's history. It may be one of the few truly lost parts of DHS, but stories of its existence still survive to be told today.
Meet the Team!
Meet the Team!
The Mirror Investigative Team on Site. Top Row (From Left to Right): Jack Dowdall, William Scace, Finn B. Radner; Bottom Row (From Left to Right): Mr. Nilsen, Clarissa Piqani
Finn B. Radner, Class of 2023, is the opinion editor for the Dedham Mirror. He is the President of the DHS Math Team, Editor-in-Chief of ECHO Magazine, and a member of the DHS Science Team.
Clarissa Piqani, class of 2023, is a news editor. They are an avid fanatic of escape rooms. They also keep up with politics in the United States.
Jack Dowdall, class of 2024, is a Junior and a News Editor for the Dedham Mirror. He enjoys listening to music, hiking, writing, and spending time with friends and family.
William Scace, Class of 2024, is a News reporter for the Dedham Mirror. He also plays for the DHS baseball team and enjoys spending time with family and travels all across the U.S. and enjoys watching Netflix in his free time.
One image by Mirror reporter Suada Xhabija was also used in this article.
THE HIDDEN HALLWAYS OF DHS WILL RETURN FOR ONE FINAL STORY NEXT WEEK!
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