Hello and welcome to my blog! If you love swimming in unique pools with stories to tell, you’re in the right place! Who said history has to be boring? Every time I immerse myself in historic waters, I feel a kinship with those who came before, as if I’ve dived back in time and am swimming among them. A sense of gratitude washes over me, that these special places exist.
I close my eyes and remember a few…
Rippled sunlight illuminating bright Catalina tiles in Marilyn Monroe’s favorite pool. Black lines stretching to what seems like eternity in a behemoth of a basin created by the US Army Corp of Engineers. White Roman statues overlooking an expanse of vibrant blue under Florida’s morning sun. A poolside glass of champagne (a toast to finishing a challenge) where luxury once hid government secrets. I could go on, but that’s for the blog!
Those are the intangibles. Then, as with all projects, there are the specifics.
Through the years, I’ve had considerable difficulty finding information about historic pools. While websites generally provide basic details like operating hours, I’ve often spent hours online perusing pool pics, researching dates of construction, types of architecture, and, of course, dimensions. We swimmers need to know how long the pool is, right? Unless the pool is a standard size, like 25m or even 25y, frequently the answer from pool attendants or front desk hotel people is “I don’t know.” And we need to know! Sure, we can count strokes and guesstimate, but I want the actual measured dimensions so badly that I’ve been known to count pool tiles and heel-to-toe steps to find my answers.
And that, my swimmy friends, is my purpose. With you, I want to share the knowledge I’ve gathered over the years, but more than that, I want to share my joy and fascination with these incredible and sometimes under-appreciated pools. Hopefully I will inspire you to love them as I do and to support their continued existence for future generations of swimmers.
If you would like your pool profiled here, or if you’re curious about one, please message me. I am always pondering which aquatic facility I want to visit next! Moreover, I may already have the information you seek! In my journals, I have logged swims in more than twenty historic pools, so if your pool is one of those, I can just write it up and post!
Happy historic swimming, everyone!
Swimmers set…
And GO!
swim history girl 
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