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Twyckenham
Hills |
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3112
Hilltop Drive, South Bend, IN 46614
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(574)
291-3436
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Twyckenham
Hills Community Club has been operating each summer since 1953 on
the South Side of South Bend. The Club features: |
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"The
Hills are Alive" South Bend Tribune Article By Gene Stowe
Excerpt is re-printed with permission. Copyright South Bend Tribune The Twyckenham Hills community pool has been a gathering place for much of the sprawling neighborhood south of Ridgedale Road, north of Byron Drive, east of Miami Street and west of Ironwood Road, where homes sell from less than $100,000 to more than $300,000. Andy Place, who developed the subdivision about 50 years ago, gave it a name that evokes Victorian English gardens and reserved land for the pool and the playground at its heart. "You could probably have several houses in there, but he gave that land to the neighborhood," says Debbie Johnson, who is vice president of the neighborhood and was co-president last year. "The pool is a nice common ground. That's how we're technically officers of the neighborhood. It runs through the pool." The pool and park host corn and sausage roasts, parties for kids and a swim team that sends swimmers to Riley and other area high schools. The park is open to everyone, whether or not they belong to the pool. A Boy Scout last year installed playground equipment, with some financial help from a neighborhood grant, and the basketball court was resurfaced a couple of years ago. "All these older kids used to swim at Riley," Debbie Johnson says. "It's almost like we're going through another generation. When I look around the pool, I see all these young people." Chris Warter and Ken Turner open the pool in the spring, maintain it daily in the summer, and close it in the fall. Warter says the water is just one thing that attracted him to Twyckenham Hills when he moved from New Jersey 24 years ago. "It's close to downtown, easy to get to and from, low crime and good neighbors," he says. "All three of my kids were swimmers at Riley High School They all started here at the pool on the Twyckenham swim team. "It's kind of a thing that brings the neighborhood together. I love the water volleyball." Warter remembers when the neighborhood nearly lost the pool. He had just ended his term as president 20 years ago when neighbors discovered that the floor of the pool had buckled -- the 10-foot end was only six feet deep. The new president, Nancy King, was affiliated with a bank and managed to arrange financing to rebuild the pool, he says. "Had it not been for her, it would have closed 20 years ago." |
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