There are times when emotions within a community run quite high, especially when the emotions are held within the hearts of hundreds of children.
Since the very earliest settlers arrived in our little town the need for recreation has been sought and very well supported. The first settlers simply relied on nature’s bountiful rivers, ponds and lakes to find a refreshing swim during the very hot days of summer. The banks of the Merrimack River as well as our very own Horseshoe Pond were visited frequently as favorite swimming holes in Concord. As the years passed there were additional places to visit for a nice swim.
As the end of summer arrived in the year 1921, there was much excitement within the youth of our city. This excitement centered around plans for a large swimming pool for both children and adults. The City of Concord approved a budget of $25,000 to build this new swimming pool and the children rejoiced, at least until they found out about the planned location.
City Engineer Howe prepared preliminary drawings during the summer of 1921. A grand swimming pool would be built in an oval shape, 200 feet long and 100 feet wide. The depth would slope from one foot down to 3½ feet at a distance of 30 feet from the shore all the way around the new pool. The pool would then deepen in the next area more rapidly, in a six-foot area from 3½ feet to six feet. The very center of this new oval pool would be nine feet deep.
With the estimated cost of the construction set between $20,000 and $25,000 the city engineer set about finding a proper location to build the new pool. He found the perfect spot at White Park during that summer of 1921, in particular he sought to convert the upper pond into the new swimming pool. The engineer felt the lower pond, our present White Park Pond, would be very expensive project because extensive drainage would be required. Further estimates centered around the cost of water, maintenance and supervision were needed prior to making a final decision. It was with these thoughts in mind the city proposed and approved the new swimming pool, not in the lower pond area, in the upper pond area. If the lower pond option was approved in 1921 our beautiful White Park Pond and granite bridge would not grace our fair city today.
As word spread like wildfire around the town there were some people that were very pleased, other people just not so. The people living in the South End were opposed strongly while the people in the north end of Concord were quite pleased to welcome a new pool into their very own neighborhood. The debate heated as the weather cooled, summer turned to fall and fall to winter. Many people within our community felt a pool was a very good idea, but why couldn’t the pool be built indoors for year-round use? There were many large buildings near Main Street that were not being used and there must certainly be a place to build a pool within one of them.
As the winter of 1921 turned to the spring of 1922 a decision was finalized to move forward with the city’s very first public swimming pool at White Park. The project to convert the small upper pond that was located exactly where our White Park Pool is today was a simpler approach than building anywhere else in the city. The new pool upon completion had a natural inlet providing spring water and the outlet flowed into the large lower pond. Though the measurements and depths varied from the original plan the children living in the 1920’s certainly did not mind. The natural swimming pool at White Park was an instant success and remains very popular to this very day. The natural swimming pool was upgraded by the WPA during the Great Depression and concrete walls were added with a filtration system. The WPA pool was enjoyed by many in the community until a new pool was installed over four decades later.
I remember my very first swimming lesson at White Park pool over 50 years ago, the smell of sanitizing chlorine, joyful screams of children and the opportunity to purchase a 10-cent snow cone from Dan the Ice Cream Man. Fond memories where the children of Concord could enjoy their hot summer days under the watchful eye of certified Concord Life Guards such as my cousin Doug Spain.
The years have passed quickly. City Engineer Howe did indeed have a good plan back in 1921. The White Park pool has been visited by those in search of relief from the heat for a century now, where the joyful sound of children meets the forested hills.