Ode to a 113-year-old swimming pool

Todd Barnett writes about caretaking a historic treasure.

I rented a room in a house on Holkham Drive in Ivy when I first moved to Charlottesville in the 1990s and on my first walk around the neighborhood I stumbled on an old rectangular, creek-fed swimming pool in the middle of the woods that was as long as a football field. At the time, I learned, the extraordinary pool had been there for nearly 80 years and was home to the member-owned Blue Ridge Swim Club. In 2011, Todd Barnett bought the historic property, where he hosts his Blue Ridge Field Camp, and continues to offer pool memberships to the public. Here’s something Barnett recently wrote about his experience caretaking the pool. Enjoy! — David McNair