Washington Heights, the narrow strip of high ground between the Harlem and Hudson Rivers, is named for the Revolutionary War Fort Washington. Fortifications aside, the area was rural, rocky, and sparsely populated until latter half of the 19th century; the extension of rapid transit to Upper Manhattan century helped spur development. Today, Washington Heights is a diverse, densely populated enclave including the massive Columbia University medical campus, historic sites like the Morris-Jumel mansion, and panoramic views of the Bronx, Lower Manhattan, and the New Jersey Palisades.

Highbridge Park Center, June 20, 1940. The land next to the 1848 High Bridge is an appropriate location for a municipal swimming pool, being the original location of the old High Bridge Reservoir. The pool and play center opened July 14, 1936. The play center was designed in the same simplified Art Moderne style of the other 1936 pool houses. The building is particularly notable for its ashlar construction. Ashlar construction means the stones used to create the walls were finely and uniformly cut into their shape and as such create very thin joints between blocks. This type of masonry is visible in the long retaining wall that runs along Amsterdam Avenue. Another unique feature of the building was the lobby murals by artist Charles Clarke. The pool facilities have been renovated a number of times since the 1960s.The earliest work either covered up or destroyed the lobby murals. Along with a number of the other WPA pools, High Bridge underwent a renovation project in the early 1980s that updated the heating, ventilation, electrical, and filtration systems and made the facilities handicap accessible. More recent work on the pool occurred in the late 1990s and in 2015 the actual High Bridge itself was reopened to the public after being closed for more than 40 years.

The 1930s were an important moment in history of recreation in New York City. In the early 1930s the Department of Parks came under the control of Robert Moses, who had very specific goals regarding citywide access to recreation facilities year-round. Moses employed the at-the-ready manpower of the New Deal's Works Progress Administration to create a spate of new, modern, and large-scale recreational facilities. This included the construction of 11 neighborhood Olympic sized pools. The pools all opened over a few weeks during the summer of 1936. The pools and accompanying play centers were constructed of inexpensive materials but featured advanced design and technology in filtration, chlorination, and heating systems and underwater lighting. Most were rendered in sleek Art Moderne styles. Each had a wading pool, lap pool, and diving pool and could accommodate thousands of swimmers at a time. In the non-summer months both the pools and the play centers were converted for paddle tennis, shuffleboard, volleyball, basketball, handball, roller skating rinks, and dance classes. These facilities in total had a capacity for nearly 50,000 people at the same time. They changed the way New York kids spent their summers. In a 1934 press release announcing the pools Moses said, “It is no exaggeration to say that the health, happiness, efficiency and orderliness of a large number of the city's residents, especially in the summer months, are tremendously affected by the presence or absence of adequate swimming and bathing facilities.”