2019 has been a pivotal year in the 61 year history of Rin Robyn Pools. On Monday, December 31, 2018, we signed the Purchase and Sale Agreement and in March we closed on the purchase of the Historic Chester building at 1 West Main Street.
1 West Main Street is right on the corner of Chester’s Main Street (Route 24) and Route 206. Originally called the Chester Oil Company, it was constructed in the 1930’s, and was always used as a gas station.

When we first learned that the property was for sale, we immediately loved the fact that it had a full-size garage door, which meant that it would be easy to bring hot tubs, and even gigantic swim spas, onto the showroom floor.
However, after we acquired the property, the building still had a couple of interior walls that needed to come out in order to create the showroom space. A structural engineer was called in and steel beams were installed to support the building where the walls were. One of the walls was made of concrete! It proved to be a challenge to take it down, but we got it done.
New flooring was installed, slat board was put up on the walls, fresh paint along with a mural that provides the feel of a NJ wooded view. We moved in our BioGuard pool chemicals, installed our BioGuard testing lab, brought in all of the other products and opened the store in early May!
We’re very pleased to have opened this new location in Chester – although people may think that we’re new to Chester, the owners of Rin Robyn Pools have actually lived in Chester for 40 years.
And the latest great news, is that we’ve been now sought out by Jacuzzi® Hot Tubs to be the exclusive dealer in the area for their venerable product line. The name Jacuzzi® is synonymous with hot tubs and spas, and there’s a good reason for that. Jacuzzi® sets the standard by which all hot tubs are measured.
Back in the 1800’s, there was a railroad that ended very near this spot serving Chester’s Main Street and the local iron mines. The Sampson Iron Mine was directly across the street on what now is Larison’s front lawn, which explains the extraordinarily high iron content of the store’s well water!
In the photo above, you can see that the building used to have towers on each end of it, with apartments upstairs, and at one time it had a restaurant in it. The towers remained in place until sometime in the 70’s when they were removed. Also, the text reads, “The Chester Oil Company, where 24 meets 31 at Chester”. What is today Route 206 was called 31 until sometime in the 1940’s.
The building subsequently became the home of the Mohawk Oil Company and was a Sunoco station for many years. When the intersection of Main Street and Rt 206 was widened and realigned, the State of NJ took away some of the property belonging to the owner and restricted access to the property with an entrance confined to only from Main Street.
These entrance constraints were the death knell for its use as a gas station and the Sunoco station pumped its last gallon of gas in July of 2010. The owner at that time removed all of the pumps and tanks and performed an environmental remediation that took years but resulted in a clean bill of health for the property in 2018, subsequently putting it up for sale.
So, stop in and see our new Chester location – and check out a new Jacuzzi®. We’re open year around.