City of San Antonio
Parks & Recreation Department

Swimming Pools' History

San Antonio’s rivers and creeks were the local swimming holes until 1915 when Parks Commissioner Ray Lambert built the city’s first public swimming pool. Lambert’s approach was simple - he scooped mud from the river bottom in Brackenridge Park, laid gravel and called it a "swimming beach."

Pool construction techniques had progressed by 1922 when the lake bed at San Pedro Springs Park was cemented to form a large spring-fed pool. Under Mayor John W. Tobin’s administration (1923-25), Lambert modernized the Brackenridge Park pool and built six other facilities throughout the City. At Woodlawn Lake, an artesian well was drilled to fill the new pool built with stone from a demolished downtown hotel. Other pools were constructed at the Crockett Street playground and at Roosevelt and Cassiano Parks.

The Depression and World War II slowed construction, the Brackenridge pool closed, the San Pedro Park pool and others were rebuilt to modern standards and new pools were built to serve the growing population. Today, 83 years after Lambert’s first "bathing beach" the Parks and Recreation Department operates 21 outdoor pools and two indoor natatoriums to serve the City’s 1 million-plus residents.