What is the Oldest Home Pools out there?

[Ocean Railroader]

There is something I'm wondering about I have seen pools form the 1960's and hear there are a few swimming pools from the 1950's along with a few from the 1970's but I'm wondering would anyone know if anyone has a still operating swimming pool from say the 1940's or even the 1930's if that is possible?

The oldest thing I remember hearing about was there used to be a swimming hole at this campground in Wisconsin I remember visiting that was around between the 1920's though to the 1970's but got replaced by a modern 1970's cement pool and was abandoned and torn down. The only remains of it are over grown trees and trash How this thing was originally made was it was a pond that was built on a small dammed off creek. But as of now I'm wondering at what time did common people start putting swimming pools in their backyards.

 

[Isaac-1]

We had a member here a while back that was in the process of restoring a 1920's pool, it was small by our modern standards measuring only about 10x20 ft or so and was built from concrete. As to older pools I stayed in a resort while on a business trip last year that had a 30 meter indoor pool built in 1912. (The Greenbrier in WV). As to how common pools were, my step father had the first private pool in our town of about 10,000 people in about 1963, it was a 18x36 concrete pool, unfortunately it is not there any more, it was filled in 5 or so years ago. It was built for physical rehab reasons for my step sister.

 

[Durk]

Sadly, it was decommissioned in 2003 but my family operated the second pool in my sig for 57 years, from 1946 to 2003. The painted steel 20x40 pool was built of tank landing craft(LST's) declared surplus after WWII and turned into pools by the Koven Steel Company of Jersey City, NJ. It could have been maintained for much longer, but we had to develop the land it was built on. The 3/8" thick marine plate had a lot of life left, but the prohibition of red lead primer by the EPA meant we had to repaint it every year or live with rust spots. It was a fantastic pool. It lived through three sand filters (one cast iron, one steel, and one stainless steel) and six or seven pumps and motors. We retrofittted a skimmer in the 60s.

 

[RobbieH]

My plaster guy said he was refinishing one from the 20's or 30's, don't remember which it was though.

 

[Ocean Railroader]

I saw a thread on here which showed a pool from the 1930's or 1950's I notice that the big older pools have thicker cement walls then the more modern ones which might explain how they can get berried under tons of earth and rock for decades and still work really well even they are repaired and restored.

It's amazing how some of them can last it makes me wounder could a 100 years in the future many of our pools be skimmed in by people in future generations. I even was working on a storyline that had the main character living the 2040's in a old 1950's house that still had it's large original 1950's pool still running.

 

[davelinde]

the big older pools have thicker cement walls then the more modern ones

When we started our pool we hit a pool that had been buried in place.... It would have been circa mid 60's. It had far less steel and far more concrete than the one we built over it. Concrete was more than twice as thick in most places.

 

[Ocean Railroader]

What's good about less steel and more concrete is that steel when it gets near water will rust and expand three times it's size which will cause the concrete around it to buckle. To me it would be cool to find a old pool like that in my yard and dig out and restore it.

We had someone spend $10,000 putting in a in ground pool in the neighborhood oddly two years later they filled it in with dirt while it was still filled so it's still in the backyard of the house. I'm not to sure though it if's vinyl or concrete.

 

[Isaac-1]

It is not uncommon to see pools filled in, depending on the market many real estate agents will suggest filling in a pool in order to sell a house since having a pool will often loose as many potential buyers as it gains, and having a pool does not tend to add much if anything to the price of a house.

Ike

 

[davelinde]

It is not uncommon to see pools filled in, depending on the market

Yep... the guy who dug it out for us said he had buried a bunch of them in his time - punch some holes in the bottom and tip in the walls.

 

[duraleigh]

that steel when it gets near water will rust and expand three times it's size

Steel can certainly rust but it doesn't expand. Where did you hear that?

 

[Ocean Railroader]

There was a show called Life After People on the History Channel which showed what would happen to the world and man made things if all the world's people went away. In it they said that what would bring down the buildings and bridges is when the rain and ice water would get into the re bar and it would rust and expand and buckle the cement. What is also interesting in Life After People they mentioned what would happen to swimming pools in that they would become swamps and ponds in the Desert Southwest for wildlife.


As for the people that filled in the swimming pool what was weird was they lived in their house for several years after they filled in their two year old in ground pool and then sold the house.

 

[Ocean Railroader]

Steel can certainly rust but it doesn't expand. Where did you hear that?

I remember seeing it in the Show Life After People that when reinforced concrete decays water gets into the steel and rusts causing it to gain in volume that pushes the concrete apart.