We are so excited to welcome our newest member, Charlottesville Aquatics to Volume 16 of The Scout Guide Charlottesville! And while Volume 16 won’t launch until next spring, we did not want to miss the opportunity to wish Charlottesville Aquatics a very Happy 50th Birthday! It isn’t every day that a local business reaches this milestone and it certainly deserves to be celebrated. Not only is 50 years a tremendous milestone, Charlottesville Aquatics also has a fantastic local story which we are confident will carry forward another 50+ years! We recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Fred von Lewinski, Founder & Owner of Charlottesville Aquatics, and got to learn more about the Charlottesville Aquatics story.

Fred grew up in Alexandria and came to Charlottesville in 1972 to attend the University of Virginia. During the summer following his first year, Fred and another UVA student, Greg Loose, both worked as lifeguards and pool supervisors in Northern Virginia. When they returned to Charlottesville that fall they decided to leverage their new skills and started their own swimming pool service company. In October of 1973 they booked their first service and pool closing jobs, and by spring of 1974 they had a number of clients who hired them to open their pools. Greg graduated a year ahead of Fred and went off to law school in Richmond, and Fred continued running the pool management company on his own while still a student at UVA. Fred ended up transferring to the Architecture School and earned a degree in Landscape Architecture. Upon his graduation in 1976, Fred continued his pool service and repair company until 1977, when he built his first pool for a UVA professor. Fred recalls that, “Professor Robert Johnson in the UVA Engineering School decided to give me a chance. I had never built a pool before. In fact, I had never even seen a pool being built, but I had fixed plenty of them and therefore I knew what not to do. I learned by doing and to this day I am thankful to Professor Johnson for giving me that chance.” Indicative of his future success, this very first pool that Fred built won a design award!

Since that first pool, Charlottesville Aquatics has won over 175 design awards! Fred has now been building pools for fifty years and he says that, “every day is still challenging and interesting because no two pools are exactly alike.” Everything that Charlottesville Aquatics does is custom. Fred has always had a keen eye for design and this has really set Charlottesville Aquatics apart. Even after 50 years he says that running a business is not for the faint of heart and there continue to be ups and downs. However the most rewarding part of owning this business is knowing how much enjoyment he has brought to the families of Charlottesville over the course of the last 50 years. “I have lost track of exactly how many pools I have built over the course of 50 years, but I think it is probably safe to say that if I include the various public pools that I have also built – Glenmore, Spring Creek, Hollymead, Forest Lakes North & South – there is not another builder in Charlottesville that has built more pools that people in Charlottesville have swum in than I have.”

Charlottesville Aquatics is a family affair, with Fred’s wife, Christine, acting as General Manager and supervising Sales, Service, Retail, and Accounting for over 20 years. Fred supervises the Construction Department and is consistently on-site for every project to this day.  Fred also has personally trained the entire field construction team. Fred & Christine’s two sons have also shown an interest in the family business. Their oldest worked alongside his father last summer, while the youngest was a lifeguard at a pool that Fred built 30 years prior. Fred’s hope is that his sons will one day want to carry on the family business.

In 1985 Charlottesville Aquatics opened up a retail store. The intent was twofold. First they wanted to better serve their existing customers and clients by providing a place where they could purchase pool chemicals and get their water tested. Second, this was the advent of the portable spa and they wanted to have a showroom to be able to sell them. Today Charlottesville Aquatics is a distributor of Caldera and Fantasy Spas and also constructs custom in-ground hot tubs. Additionally, they sell Brunswick Billiard tables and other game tables such as shuffleboard, table tennis, air hockey and foosball, so that you can build your complete dream back yard and game room in one stop at Charlottesville Aquatics.

If you have been dreaming of adding a pool to your back yard, now is the time to start planning in order to have your pool by summer 2024. Charlottesville Aquatics is the pool builder of choice of most Charlottesville home builders so reach out today to find out if they are the right builder for you. Charlottesville Aquatics believes that becoming the owner of a pool or a spa is a lifestyle, not just a luxury, and they want you to feel completely comfortable as you make your decision. The trend for family backyard fun is not going away and if you are ready to build your dream backyard start here today. To celebrate their The greatest testament to Charlottesville Aquatics is that some of the same customers who were working with Fred while he was still in college, are still loyal customers today!

Charlottesville Aquatics | 434.973.7433 | 3275 Berkmar Drive Charlottesville, VA | @cvilleaquatics