McGuane Park

Very clean facilities. Friendly staff. Lots of activities for the kids. Large heated pool with clean locker rooms. Outdoor basketball court. Security does a good job too.

POOL
Indoor pool
Lanes: 6
Length: 25’
Windows: No
Cleanliness: Not horrible
LOCKER ROOMS
Cleanliness: Not great
Warm showers: Yes
Water pressure: Poor
Shower curtains: One
Very few private stalls, open shower area
PARKING
Easy: Yes
Free: Yes
Bike racks: Yes
OTHER
Lifeguard attentiveness: Average
Hassles: Very fussy with making people leave even when few people are there.
Accurate scheduling: No
Respectfulness of lap swimmers: Great.
Swimming pattern: Not busy enough to know

The ideal place to get your children, grandchildren, cousins, etc. involved in extracurricular activities. Prices are cheap-​reasonable and programs fill up fast.

When you live far from home, it’s the comforts of home that get you more acclimated to your new surroundings, right? Well, at least for me, it’s true — and that comfort is playing tennis. When I have that burning urge to slice, ace, lob or volley that little greenish yellow ball, I come to McGuane Park. The backdrop of the city’s skyline makes for some breathtaking views. Overall, it is a decent park; there is a small jungle gym area with slides, swings and a fountain (for kids to play in?). There’s also a basketball court and baseball field.
There is plenty of street parking available if you decide to drive to the park. Occasionally, you can find food vendors in the vicinity of the park as well if you get hungry. Personally, I haven’t tried them, so I can’t speak of them. Across the street from the park is what looks like a huge overgrown that I think was intended on being part of the park, but I’m not sure what it’s for. I see people walking on it, so maybe for runners?
Although the tennis courts get the job done, the courts could be repaved seeing that there are so many cracks. Additionally, there need to be lights so people are able to actually see the ball after it gets darker outside. Overall, this is a pretty nice park!

This is my childhood park. I can remember my Pop taking me here when I was like only 3 or 4 yrs. old. I also remember playing here with my borther and sisters, and cousins. Back in the Early 1970’s Bridgeport was still hardcore racist. I went to day camp here a few summers and the kids were from the projects down on 31^st street, and the day camp counselors where just Bridgeport teens who wouldn’t protect you from the daycamp racist hillbilly trash bullies. But that was a long time ago. My brother or older cousins used to usually beat alot of them up or protect me. I also remember being 5 yrs. old and trying to play like a little kid in the park, where there used to be a big planet Saturn slide. It looked like the planet Saturn and had hollow craters the kidscould go into and climb to the top and slide down the Saturn ring that was a nice blue slide. Well, anyway, 2 project punk kids came by and they started hitting me for no reason besides the fact that I wasn’t an uneducated, racist hillbilly project kid. I remember fighting these older kids who were at least 11 or 12 yrs. old. It was hard growing up in Bridgeport being a kid who’s father was Peruvian. But my Maternal grandfather was a native American Indian. My father moved to Bridgeport in the 1950’s and was shaken down constantly by Daley Sr. cops. But now the park and the neighborhood have changed. The park itself has always had the bacci ball lanes and the horseshoe toss section. I used to swim, infact I learned how to swim in the McGuanne park pool. Cool. In the summertime, me, my brothers, and my cousins would work outside the Jewels and Dominicks, yes there was a Dominicks where the Unique thrift store, and Walgreens now stand, and we would carry customers bags of groceries for tips. They knocked all that over and built an entirely new mall where the Super X drugstore, and Domicks once stood. The Super X drugstore used to be where the Egg store now stands. McGuanne park also used to have summer events like Carnival rides, and free hot dogs to all the kids once a year. Speaking of Hot Dogs, I remember on every single corner of McGuanne park there was a hot dog vedor. I used to buy my popyseeded Sam Rosen hot dog bun Hot dog, with a tom tom tamale, and either a Canfields soda, or an upper ten. Now there is one Hot dog stand close to the Unique thrift store. You can catch a glimpse of that Hot Dog stand almost every day in the summer. The mens locker room was a dangerous place for me in the early 1970’s because I was a little kid and the locker room was usually filled with project gang punks, and the showers had, and still have no stalls, and as a little 5 yr. old kid going to swim in the pool, I saw lots, I mean LOTS of naked men showering. I didn’t want to see that! And you HAD to take a shower according to pool rules before you jumped in the pool. I was very scared whenever I wanted to swim in the pool. What if any of them guys were child molestors? It’s still like that to this day. I wonder why it has gone on for so long like this. Not very safe McGuanne park. C’mon. And of course all the project kids who delighted in peeing in the pool. I forgive them now that I am older because I realize now that they were brought up by racist hillbillies so they didn’t know any better. Besides all of the negative stuff about this park, and i’m not going to mention how the old project gang the «Disciples» used to terrorize the kids at this park for no reason at all, and a poor little Chinese kid I saw get beat up by 4 or 5 white hillbilly project kids. I will say that today McGuanne park now has a brand new walking park where the old Rock quarry used to be. Yes Bridgeport used to have a HUGE whole in the earth that was a rock quarry. They also have several tennis courts that are used on a daily basis. They had for a while a pre kindergarten class. I enrolled myson there even though I have some sad memories of the park. Like I said, alot has changed. The majority of the racist punk kids now no longer exsist. The projects have been remodeled. Today there are still gangs but aren’t there gangs all over the city? I go to the park frequently when I can. Old memories, the good ones of McGuanne park, like eating a hot dog and a tom tom tamale, while listening to the Jackson 5 on the vendors radio will never fade from my memories of this park. And I forgot to mention the indoor basketball courts, and the gym room, and the wood shop for the daycamp kids in summer. I did notice this summer more female and friendlier camp counselors. McGuanne park. visit it.