Following a process that began last summer to evaluate the condition and history of the Swenson Park swimming pool bathhouse, Spur city council voted last week to entertain bids for repair of the interior to provide usable public bathroom facilities for the city’s largest park.
The building, constructed in 1936 with the aid of Works Progress Administration labor, is an architectural centerpiece of the park and worthy of restoration in its own right, according to architects David Driskill and Jarod Fancher of Design Corral LLC, who produced drawings that will guide future work.
Mayor Louise Jones, upon guidance of the city’s attorney last fall, had confirmed that funds earmarked for repair on the swimming pool could be directed toward work on the bathhouse, which is the most urgent need.
An advisory committee was formed to document the building’s history and make recommendations, and a citizens’ group met last December to discuss possible approaches and adaptive reuses to the building. All agreed that the bathhouse was a treasure worth preserving and putting back into service, as the centerpiece of the park’s facilities regardless of what direction plans for the pool might take in the future.
“Spur’s pool and bathhouse are an important architectural and cultural legacy of the WPA,” said Evan Thompson, director of Preservation Texas. “More important, they are a critical part of a cultural landscape that embraced a number of civic amenities that few small cities could match, including the hillside amphitheater built for the Texas centennial.”
The immediate needs for the bathhouse are to repair broken water pipes and upgrade toilets to current accessibility standards, and to secure access to the pool area on the back.
Plans for dust control through ventilation windows, addition of sidewalk railing, a reinforced door and other matters are currently under consideration, said Mayor Louise Jones. There is no plan at present to install heating and air conditioning; water would be shut off as needed in cold weather to prevent future damage to pipes.
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