Deep Dive: An Introduction to Woodland Hillstory
Relax, take a nice breath, and join us as we go beneath the surface and uncover conversation treasures to bring up.
These four angelic children are inviting families just like yours to join Woodland Hills in time for the start of the season - the 1960 season.
Having been incorporated as a nonprofit on October 3, 1958, the Club had just opened its main pool on August 8, 1959, and now folks were excited about enjoying their first full summer of swimming.
According to the Woodland Hills News, Vol. 1, No. 1, dated November 1, 1958, “In signing the charter, the Honorable John Kennedy, Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, said he was ‘delighted to sign the charter for such a worthwhile and wholesome community activity.’”
Less than a week later, our founders presented their petition to the Upper St. Clair Township Planning Board.
For most of our original members, who lived here in USC, or in Peters Township or in the Borough of Bethel (which would later become Bethel Park), the idyllic Woodland Hills property with its unobstructed valley view was both exceptionally beautiful and familiar. To our members who called Mt. Lebanon home, though, a drive to Woodland Hills Club probably felt like a trip to the countryside.
A comparatively rural school district at the time, Upper St. Clair wouldn’t even graduate its first class until two years after the printing of that trifold brochure above - and those first alumni had actually spent all twelve grades at what is now Ft. Couch Middle School, since construction of Upper St. Clair High School wouldn’t be completed for two more years. Before 1957, USCSD’s small population of 10th- through 12th-grade students had commuted to Mt. Lebanon High School, where they were (mostly) affectionately referred to as kids from The Farm. Regardless, when they all gathered at Woodland Hills, they were each part of the same “congenial” Club community.
Not a single diving board in the deep-end photo at top, right, in the 1959 ad above! Or chaise lounge anywhere! Or blade of grass? Surely there’s a healthy lawn on the wiffleball field, though, pictured in the background at bottom, right.
Soon after purchasing our first seven acres and successfully petitioning Upper St. Clair for re-zoning so that a pool could be built on Woodland Hills Club’s property, our Board of Governors (as our volunteer leaders were then known) added another 1.7 acres to our grounds - all at a purchase price of $1,875 per acre. Fortunately for us, they had the foresight to acquire more land than was really necessary for a swim club. They envisioned a wading pool, a gatehouse with showers, a wooded picnic area, and facilities for tennis, volleyball, shuffleboard and, according to the ad above, even ice skating!
Did you catch those phone numbers on the ad and brochure page above? And how about that pipe he’s enjoying in the water? We’re pretty sure the cartoon is a joke, yes, but then again, the 1959 rule prohibiting smoking does specify “on pool deck.” Ready for another interesting dictate from that same year? “Woman bathers must wear caps” is on the list of rules, for real. (No cap!)
We hope you’ve enjoyed the first installment of Deep Dive, our new history feature. We’d love it if you contributed. Longtime members, please tell us your stories. Share your photos and your fond memories.