Looking for a life preserver

7/16/2012

Anderson officials hope to find a way to restore and reopen the city's historic Athletic Pool.

Beginning in the 1920s and continuing well into the 1950s, public swimming pools rode a wave of popularity. Municipalities across the U.S. funded construction of pools, designed for the leisure and enjoyment of the nation’s burgeoning middle class.

As you drive west over the Eighth Street bridge into downtown Anderson, you may notice an oddly shaped structure resembling an empty salad bowl. You are looking at one of the very few remaining pools in America designed by engineer Wesley Bintz.

Bintz patented an egg-shaped above-ground swimming pool that incorporated dressing rooms under the structure, claiming that less excavation resulted in lower construction. He designed more than 130 such pools around the country. Only a few remain, most of them unused due to shrinking municipal budgets.

Vacant for more than five years, the Anderson Athletic Pool is threatened by deferred maintenance. Indiana Landmarks’ Eastern Regional Office is working with the City of Anderson and the Parks Department, which have an interest in getting the pool back into operation.

For more information, contact J.P. Hall, Director of our Eastern Regional Office, 765-478-3172 or jphall@indianalandmarks.org.