The Maryville Municipal Swimming Pool opened on August 20, 1955. It was the first time Maryville had a public swimming pool since the Maryville Sanitary Swimming Pool at First and Vine closed in the late 1930s. The 230,000-gallon pool opened ahead of schedule after a $75,000 bond election for the pool passed in November 1954, following much effort by the Soroptimist Club, including torchlight rallies. The pool was initially open only 2 weeks, and opening day was on a 100-degree day, and was punctuated by a lightning storm in which swimmers went into the dressing room but didn’t leave.
I particularly like the colorized painting of the photo of opening day which shows two groups of swimmers in spontaenous formation. The caption says.
Just minutes after the doors opened Sunday and swimmers were allowed into the new Maryville pool for the first time, this photo was taken, showing a good start for the 576 bathers who took advantage of the pool in Sunday’s 100-degree heat. In the center of the picture, local teenagers can be seen forming a star pattern. After the pool became more crowded. These stunts were prohibited. At the far end of the pool, the three diving boards are all occupied. None of the boards was empty throughout the afternoon and evening, as swimmers dived, climbed out, and dived again, over and over. In the foreground, children are playing with inflatable rubber water toys. AI is close to the original but did change a few of the swimmers.
Here’s the report on opening day:
It’s No Dream Anymore Swim Pool Pleases 576 Adults, Children
One of Maryville’s younger swimmers, about 10 years old, summed up the feelings of most of the 576 persons who turned out for the opening day of the pool yesterday, smiling toothlessly, “Gosh,” he said, smiling toothlessly, “Walking down here today, I thought I was in a dream talking to a pool in Maryville!”
When tickets went on sale at 1 p.m., about 50 youngsters were outside waiting- -waving towels and eyeing the water like it just might* disappear. Seconds later, the pool began filling as Maryvillians got their first local dip in 20-some years. The swimmers were by no means limited to the school-age and under set. Many Maryville merchants donned their trunks and plunged into the cool, cool water with the youngsters.
C A. Bristow, who was selling tickets, remarked, “It’s amazing and wonderful to see the parents come right in and go with their children. Swimming is for families, and I’m glad to see families realize the fact.”
Bob Gingrich and Benny Surplus were perhaps the most eager swimmers, as their names appear in the record book as the purchasers of the first tickets. The Arden Wedlock family was the first family to buy tickets. From 5 to 6 p. m., the pool was closed, and at the opening hour, another crowd was waiting to go in.
This time. Mary Lou Armstrong and Russell Thompson bought the first tickets. A total of 429 persons used the pool in the afternoon and 147 at night.
During the lightning between 6 and 7 p. m., the swimmers had to leave the pool and wait in the dressing rooms until the electricity moved on. During this time, the onlookers outside the north gate didn’t leave. They stayed and waited to watch the swimmers come back. Throughout the afternoon and evening, the area outside the gate was crowded with non-swimmers watching the antics in the water. Eleven volunteer lifeguards and the volunteer pool manager, Johnny Meyer, handled the swimming and swimmers, while Bristow and Mrs. Glen Boyles sold tickets.
The Soroptimist Club set up a food stand on the north side of the pool. Most of the lifeguards are young people who worked on a swimming pool drive off and on for about six years, holding paper drives, canvassing the town to determine how a vote would turn out, staging parades, even torchlight rallies, distributing literature, and making posters. All the efforts continued to fail until about a year ago, when Maryvillians voted in favor of the $75,000 bond for the new pool. Now, Lifeguards Peg Price, John Lee Thompson, Bill Baldwin, Dixie Moore, and Elvalee Donaldson, all college graduates this spring, are the lifeguards who worked on the drive for a pool about five years ago. About two years ago, other lifeguards, Patrick Price, Pat Donaldson, Barbara Benning, Paul Roach, and Johnny Meyer, worked on a Sunday on a paper drive to get money for a start for a swimming pool fund or some kind of teen town. College students, L Dick Dinkel and Bill Shultz, are the other lifeguards. Swimming will continue from 6 to 9 p. m. daily and from 1 to 9 p.m.
AI did not translate the plaque very well so I erased its text. The caption on the colorized painting of the dedication of the plaque at the pool says
Shown around the plaque on the west side of the bathhouse are, standing, left to right, Mrs. John Symanski, president of the Soroptimist Club, sponsoring a food stand and ticket sellers during the two weeks the pool is open; Mrs. Glen Soroptimist member and “Boyles, ticket seller Sunday; Councilman Roy Neal; Mayor Glen Boyles; and Jaycees, Leigh Wilson, J. B. Taylor and Paul Moyer. Kneeling, left to right, are Dan Cornelison, member of the park board; Arnie Wilson, Jaycee president; and Robert Peart, city manager. The plaque, engraved with the council members’ names, was contributed by the Clinton Allen Monument Co., Maryville.
Here’s the announcement of th opening:
Maryville’s New Swimming Pool To Open Aug. 20 Council Approves Opening for Limited Service Until Sept. 7 Following Report of Builders
Bring out those swimming suits -the new Maryville Municipal Swimming pool will open Aug. 20. That is the decision of the city council following a report by C. L.Burbridge of the Paddock Pools that work on the new $75,000 monolithic pool would be completed next week.
The city council, however, admonishes that the pool would be open for limited service, since there have been no suits, towels, baskets, or other * The ol’ swimmin’ hole’s been paved! And. What’s more, thanks to a surprise move by the city council and faster final construction, the new swimming pool will open Aug. 20 to anyone and everyone who wishes to swim. Plans are to keep the pool open for only a few weeks this year, just so that, for the first time in over 20 years, Maryvillians can swim in their own city, in their own pool.
When Aug. 20 rolls around, and Maryvillians who haven’t been swimming in years, de-moth their suits, and children who have never once been swimming, all congregate at the pool. The hardest part’s done-Maryville tried to take a step forward, took a gigantic leap instead, and has emerged successful!
Work Completed Earlier. Previously, the council did not think that the pool would be done in time for the opening. But it was reported that work over the past month has progressed well and will be completed in time for about two weeks’ service.
The pool will be open from Aug. 20 through Labor Day, Sept. 5. Hours are yet to be determined. A force, some voluntary, must be recruited for the pool.
Lifeguards must be secured. So full hours will be announced later. It may be open from 10 o’clock in the morning until 10 o’clock at night, or from late afternoon until 10 o’clock at night. Full details will be announced later. Charges will be 35c for adults and 15c for children under 12, it was decided.
230.000 Gallons of Water Needed. Water will be run into the pool next week, some 230,000 gallons. The city will check the pool and the operation. But a city hall spokesman advised that bathers will have to change into their suits at home or use the bathhouses’ limited facilities. The opening will mark just over nine months since the favorable 3-to-1 vote by Maryville citizens on the Jaycee-sponsored $75,000 swimming pool bond issue last Nov. 16.
It will mark the first municipal swimming in some 20 years
Shown here is a drawing of the $75,000 pool done Nov. 16, 1954, a week before the bonds were voted for the project. A swimming pool in Maryville had seemed as far distant as the moon’s escalators. Previous efforts by several civic groups had failed to move the entire city enough to pass the bonds. Then, with the Junior Chamber of Commerce leading the way, 27 civic organizations “dived in.” Soon, everyone in town was “getting in the swim,” as the posters declared.
Below is a colorized rendering of the pool used in the promotion
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