Globe Hollow Swimming Area

🏊Swimming at Globe Hollow Swimming Area

Historically the beach featured a sandy shore, shade trees, and a swim raft with a diving board in the reservoir water; the town continues to run it as a lifeguarded, family-oriented seasonal swim facility. A community listing describes the water as clear and notes there are no rope swings, characterizing it as a family swimming spot rather than a cliff-jumping or adventure site.

📍How to get to this swimming hole

Located at 100 Spring Street, Manchester, CT; the swim area has its own onsite parking lot, with additional parking noted near Lakewood Circle South for those accessing the adjoining reservoir/Case Mountain trail system.

Parking: Onsite public parking lot at the 100 Spring Street facility; additional parking available near Lakewood Circle South for trail access.

🥾The walk in

No real hike here. The water is a short walk from where you park. Drive-up facility: the swim area sits directly next to its own onsite parking lot at 100 Spring Street, so no hike is needed to reach the water (walk from car to beach is well under a couple of minutes). The reservoir does adjoin a separate trail network into the Case Mountain / Water Department land (used for hiking, not to access the swim beach itself), reachable from the same lot or the Lakewood Circle South overflow parking.

💬What regulars say

Visitor reports: swimmers describe Globe Hollow as a family-friendly 'old reservoir swimming area' with clear water and no rope swings, distinct from more adventurous cliff and rope-swing holes. One first-hand visitor notes the beach draws crowds ('the pool with all the riff-raff') and recommends the nearby, quieter Taylor Reservoir off Fern Street as an alternative for those wanting solitude. As recently as 2023, locals were still asking when 'the pools,' specifically naming Globe Hollow, would open for the summer, which suggests the town's opening dates aren't well publicized in advance and visitors often have to ask around each year.

📜Backstory

Built in 1906-07 by the Cheney Brothers as part of the Globe Hollow Reservoir water-supply project on Hop Brook; the adjoining swimming area was a popular North End Manchester summer destination featuring a sandy beach and a diving raft, with a Quonset-hut changing building later replaced by a brick bathhouse and the beach later paved. In 1935 the Hartford Courant reported the town banned 'scanty bathing suits' at the facility.