Closed for five summers, a renovated community pool in Jamaica Plain finally reopens

Swim classes at the indoor pool began last week, and a planned pool reopening celebration is set for Monday. The renovated natatorium now has new gutters, an additional swimming lane, better flooring, water temperature regulation, and ventilation.

The reopening marked the end of an almost six-year push to give the pool a facelift, community organizers said, but it also gives a second wind to a fight to renovate the rest of the community center and expand programming for Jamaica Plain residents.

The city has spent millions in recent years to fix and clean up neighborhood pools, some of which closed for multiple summers. In 2023, amid a scorching heatwave, more than half of the city-operated public pools were closed. The Clougherty Pool in Charlestown was closed for two years for extensive repairs before reopening last summer.

The saga to reopen Hennigan has been more than twice as long.

Emails shared with the Globe show local organizers campaigning to have the pool reopened for several years. Last summer, a Boston Centers for Youth and Families spokesperson said the Hennigan pool would reopen for the 2025 season. That never happened.

It wasn’t until December 2025 that residents said they were told in a memo from Boston Public Schools the reason for the delays: the pool needed mechanical parts and filters.

Then this February, leadership sent another memo, saying a new heat exchanger was needed, and it would take up to six weeks to be shipped.

Luisa Harris, a Jamaica Plain resident who said she has pushed for better pool conditions since 2007, said the lack of communication was frustrating during the closure.

“There’s no communication,” she said of the lack of updates about the pool before it reopened. “There’s never been any, ‘Hey, we are shooting for this date or this day. We’re going to have another inspection.’ Nothing to that extent, very little communication.”

Because the Hennigan center shares a building with James W. Hennigan K-6 School, the community center is comanaged by Boston Centers for Youth and Families and Boston Public Schools. Neither responded to repeated requests for comment.

The Boston City Council’s committee on human services is holding a hearing on June 29 to “discuss the operational status of all BCYF pools and aquatic facilities citywide.”

Residents said they have been concerned about more than just the pool at the Hennigan, which primarily serves the largely Latino and Black Hyde Square community. Last April, the neighborhood held a community conversation with over 150 teens, community members, and parents in the school cafeteria, according to emails shared with the Globe. With local leaders in attendance, residents voiced their concerns.

There were requests for more aquatic programming, more community events for youth, and extending the pool’s hours.

Then there is the basketball court, which Danny Vargas, 21, recalled having an uneven, slippery floor and “dead spaces” where a ball can’t bounce as high as it did years ago when he was a Hennigan school student.

Vargas brought up other concerns he recalls from his time at the school, including dirty changing rooms, cold water in the showers, and unclean bathrooms that often smelled. Other residents pointed to a damaged window in the girls’ changing room that they say has yet to be repaired.

BPS and BCYF did not respond to Globe questions about the conditions raised by residents. When a Globe reporter visited the center recently, a section of the basketball court was taped off to visitors, and there was visible water damage.

Harris also advocated for more exposure of the center’s services, especially to local veterans and seniors.

Eryn-Ashlei Bailey, with the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council, said now that the pool is open, it’s time for the center’s leadership to push to improve the whole facility.

“Families rely on these community centers, this school to raise a healthy environment for children,” she said, drawing attention to the many minority groups the center serves. “And we can show them that this city really cares and … believes in their future if [they] keep those places clean and in safe shape.”

Jaden Perry can be reached at jaden.perry@globe.com.