Two historic Boise, Idaho public pools have been left unused since 2020. Both pools, South and Lowell, have an Art Deco design and a unique above-ground structure. There are bright colors and glass blocks, but there are no swimmers in the dried-up pools originally built in 1953.
Since the pools were closed in 2020, historic preservationists in Boise have argued for rehabilitating the pools. Both need to be brought back up to current-day standards in filtering technology, mechanical updates and ADA regulations.
At a City Council meeting this week, the fate of the pools was finally decided.
Lowell Pool will be rehabilitated with updates to include widening the pool deck, adding locker rooms, installing an elevator and overall mechanical updates. However, South Pool will not re-open. Instead, officials voted to build a new city pool a mile away from South Pool near Whitney Elementary.
“What we’ve been able to do is respond to folks that care deeply about these pools, come up with ways to save them in many ways and look at how much more we can invest in our Bench with a pool right next to Whitney school where there are thousands of kids that can walk there safely and not have to cross those busy streets,” Lauren McLean, mayor of Boise, told Boise Dev News.
The City of Boise is hoping construction on Lowell Pool and the new pool can begin next year, with opening dates in 2026. In deciding not to re-open South Pool, many city council members and community members hope that a part of the pool will be saved and re-purposed somehow.
This would not be the first time that Boise saved a historic piece of architecture for a new structure. Just down the road from South Pool, a recently built Junior High features a historic Art Deco façade placed there from the original building.
“I realize there will be people frustrated at me that there won’t be another generation of kids swimming at South Pool and I know how important that historic legacy is, but I don’t think that historic legacy has to be separate,” said Jimmy Hallyburton, city council member, “I think we can serve a lot of kids who are in need for something in their neighborhood and figure out how we can do something special with this site as well.”
