To fit the requirement for cheap materials, each building would be built using elements of the Streamline Moderne and Classical architectural styles. The buildings would also be located near "comfort stations", additional playgrounds, and spruced-up landscapes. Construction for some of the 11 pools began in October 1934. Even though there was already a pool at Betsy Head Park, Moses described its existing pool facilities as "an antiquated tank" that contained no filtration facilities, and proposed to refurbish it entirely as part of the WPA initiative. The existing field house largely remained intact, except for some modifications to make way for an enlarged pool. The field house's lockers were replaced by baskets, and its interior was expanded so that 4,660 bathers per day could use the facilities, rather than 4,000. By mid-1936, ten of the eleven WPA-funded pools were completed and were being opened at a rate of one per week. Except for the Betsy Head pool, each opening featured elaborate performances attended by La Guardia. On August 7, 1936, Betsy Head Park's pool area opened without any ceremony and without the mayor in attendance, as it was arranged at the last minute, and the diving and wading pools were not yet complete. Rather, the opening of the pool was spread verbally, and was attended by hundreds of kids. In September 1936, work started on converting the main pool to winter use, with workers temporarily draining the pool and adding basketball, handball, shuffleboard, tennis, and volleyball facilities. The original bathhouse was destroyed by fire on August 17, 1937, and the pool was closed for the rest of the season. Park commissioner Moses's letter to La Guardia, addressed three days later, advocated for the total replacement of the bathhouse. The pool area was reopened for the 1938 season, with a temporary one-story structure that housed the showers. The current one-story bathhouse was opened on May 27, 1939. By 1941, the other athletic facilities in the larger southwestern portion of the park were nearly complete. A new indoor playground in Betsy Head Park, to serve as a community recreation center during the winter, was announced in May 1948 and was supposed to begin the next year. However, by mid-1949 construction still had not started. It is unclear whether the playground was ever completed. In the mid-20th century, Brownsville became a mostly African American neighborhood, and Betsy Head Park's patrons came to include boxer Riddick Bowe, who lived in Brownsville.