daniel prazer

Branhaven was a Jackson Township, Ohio, staple while I was growing up. A HUGE pool (500,000 gallons, if memory serves, which is larger than Olympic-sized), six lifeguard towers, more than a dozen tennis courts and a backboard, sand volleyball court, and acres of grass for kids to play on.

I grew up two blocks away, and Branhaven was the farthest I was allowed to walk or ride my bike—no doubt because my grandpa worked there. Always unable to sit still, he kept that pool crystal clear and handled general maintenance after he retired from Ohio Bell. As a kid, I remember him driving his powder blue Plymouth Duster over to our house every day we weren’t at the pool, just to have lunch with his daughter and grandkids. Those lunches and Grandpa taking me down to show how the filtration system worked are some of my most cherished childhood memories.

A few years ago, the owner of Branhaven passed away, and the new owners decided to do something new—make it into a water park. “Jackson Township doesn’t have a community pool. I think there’s a need here for this type of aquatics facility,” the new owner told the Massillon Independent. So before the bottom dropped out of the economy, that’s what they were doing.

Today, it looks like this. Click the image to see more of this on my Flickr page.