Culture & Entertainment Notebook: Harmon Field Public Swimming Pool keeps making a splash

Patented in 1926 by architect and engineer Wesley Bintz, the above-ground Harmon Field Public Swimming Pool in Chaffee, Missouri, has been attracting visitors with its aroma of summertime mixed with chlorine for nearly 80 years.

Groundbreaking for the aged, bright blue and white, 60-feet by 90-feet brick-and-concrete pool at 11988 State Highway 77 took place Oct. 18, 1938, according to records provided by the Chaffee Historical Society. Construction -- with a total cost of $31,000 -- took place over a two-year timespan and was completed by Works Progress Administration and the City of Chaffee around 1940.

"When my son was in the service, he was trying to tell guys about our pool," assistant collector for the City of Chaffee Vicky Martin said. "And they kept saying, 'Well, what do you mean it's on top of the ground?' So I finally sent pictures to them. None of the guys had ever seen one, and they were from all over the United States."

Harmon Field Public Swimming Pool held its opening day celebration June 11, 1940 -- with elephants, according to Martin.

"It was cool," she said. "I wasn't there, but I'm like, 'Oh, my god, in this small town there was an elephant?'"

Martin said the first time she swam she did not live in Chaffee, but grew up in Benton, Missouri.

"I guess I was 12 the first time I came over here. It was full that day," Martin said. "And that would've been in 1970. But my kids learned to swim there, and now my grandkids are learning to swim."

Martin said the pool celebrated its 75th anniversary around three years ago with free admission, fireworks and "all kinds of games."

"That was pretty neat. It was packed," Martin said. "It's amazing how many calls I get at city hall for people wanting information so they can take their grandchildren to something historical they have never seen. Or maybe people who grew up here and want to know if it's still open."

According to records and Martin, the property was obtained by the City of Chaffee as a gift in 1925 from William Harmon and his wife, Katherine, through the Harmon Foundation.

The original "bathing pool" patent application was initially filed by Bintz on June 14, 1923, and stated he was a citizen of the United States, residing at Lansing, county of Ingham, State of Michigan. At the time, Bintz was at the verge of inventing a "certain new and useful improvements in bathing pools."

Bintz's goals, according to the 1923 document, were to provide an improved bathing pool that may be readily constructed on a hillside or on irregular ground with a small amount of excavation; to provide lockers, dressing rooms, showers, toilets, all readily accessible to the pool; to provide an improved desired space for dressing rooms, lockers, showers to utilize a maximum of the ground area covered by the structure.

Missouri State Historic Preservation eligibility assessment records indicate the Harmon Foundation in New York provided funding for the property, with resources also donated by "several organization and individuals."

Chaffee Historical Society president Ronnie Eichhorn said the pool isn't a money-making project, but "something for the community."

Martin agreed, saying it was the main reason why the Harmon Foundation donated the money.

Martin said there were previous talks of placing the pool on a historical list, because of the fear of it being torn down.

"There were several council members that wanted it demolished, because it was costing so much money," she said.

But for a historical grant or loan to be made available, Martin and Eichhorn said substantial changes would have to be made to pool, such as replacing current pump and plumbing parts with original equipment from that time period -- which are not readily available, Martin said.

"It's a drain on the city financially, but not enough to make it worthwhile to eliminate it," Eichhorn said.

Martin said similar pools were at one time "everywhere" during the 1920s and 1930s. Some of the pool lobbies, she said, were small museums to local war heroes and veterans.

"I know there's one around Fulton, there may be one in Texas," Martin said. "In fact, there was a city in Texas that had two in one town."

Both Martin and Eichhorn explained there aren't any other pools near Chaffee similar to Harmon Field Public Swimming Pool.

Eichhorn said when he was in grade school, he "couldn't jump in that water without telling somebody to move over," because the pool was always near capacity.

Martin and Eichhorn had no official record of the pool admission rates from when it opened in 1940, but Eichhorn said in the 1960s he would ride the streets with his brother and pick up soda bottles to cash, to pay the admission for a day at the pool.

"We could do that every day and go swimming. So back then, swimming was probably 25 cents," Eichhorn said. "He'd get on the handle bars, I'd paddle and we'd ride the streets. That was when they threw soda bottles out. We'd pick up bottles and sell them for 2 cents, and we'd go swimming."

The rate of admission for a day at the Harmon Field Public Swimming Pool is $1 Martin said, which does very little to help cover the cost of maintenance.

Chaffee public school teacher Loretta Arnzen has managed the pool for two summers and said Harmon Field Public Swimming Pool contains six filters and two pumps -- unlike any modern pool -- in a designated "pump room" extending from the women's restroom.

The room itself seems to have dilapidated over the years with bits and pieces of ceiling that have crumbled and fallen to the floor. Despite the age of the pool, Arnzen reassured the structure is in good condition.

Arnzen recalled one near-catastrophic "great flood of 2017" during her first summer managing the pool.

"The pressure got to be too much and something popped off in the middle of the night, and no one knew until the police saw the water flooding out the front doors."

But even with the "flood" and the age of the pool, Arnzen said within the last five years an engineer has inspected and confirmed "She's sturdy."

"She'll be around a long time," Arnzen said.

jhartwig@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3632