Diving into the History of Public Pools

The Como Regional Park Pool is a great place to cool down on a hot summer afternoon. It features a lazy river, a lap pool, and a diving board. It also only costs about $5 – $9 per person and is open to the public for most of the summer.

Public swimming pools can be hard to find. It is estimated that one outdoor public swimming pool exists for every 38,000 people in America. To put that into perspective, there are about 10.4 million private residential pools in the country, or about one pool per 31 people.

The Cabot Street Bath in Boston was the first public pool in the US . . . well, as the name implies, it was really more of a giant bathtub. It opened in 1868 and was located in a working-class neighborhood, which largely contained homes without bathing facilities. The City built the Cabot Street Bath to give residents a place to bathe. The Bath was segregated along sex lines, with men in one pool and women in another.

Many municipal pools that were built later in the US were segregated by class and race. This article provides a deeper exploration of the history of public pools and how access to them has been tied to wealth and race.

Recreational swimming supports mental and physical wellbeing and can promote water safety. It’s also an active way to stay cool during the warm summer months. As summer temperatures rise each year, pools are becoming more important than ever. However, tightened recreational budgets and the privatization of pools have led to the decline of public pools in many cities.

Ultimately, public pools are a community asset. They serve a greater function than just being a place to cool down during the summer. Public pools like the Como Regional Park Pool are hard to come by, despite the value that they bring to a community.