- City:
- Wichita, KS
- Site Type:
- Swimming Pools, Parks and Recreation
- New Deal Agency:
- Works Progress Administration (WPA)
- Started:
- 1938
- Completed:
- 1938
- Quality of Information:
- Very Good
- Marked:
- No
- Site Survival:
- No Longer Extant
Description
Wichita Municipal Beach Swimming Pool was built in 1938 as a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project. The pool replaced an earlier municipal pool built in 1923.
The new pool cost $50,000 to construct. At 240 feet long and 125 feet wide, the pool sloped from a depth of two to nine feet. It also contained 38 underwater flood lights of 1000 watts each. In addition to the main deck, there were two smaller pools nearby designed for children.
The Municipal Beach Swimming Pool was the crown jewel of the Wichita parks and recreation system. It opened to a deluge of residents during the summer season of 1938. There were several neighborhood pools maintained throughout the city during the 1920s and 1930s, but annual attendance at Municipal Beach dwarfed the other facilities.
Situated on a curve in the Arkansas River, the splendor of the Municipal Beach Swimming Pool reflected the social vision of the New Deal.
Today, the pool has been replaced by the Ralph Wulz Tennis Center, which was built in 1976.
Source notes
Wichita State University Special Collections Subject Search https://specialcollections.wichita.edu/collections/local_history/tihen/pdf/People&Places/Municipal_Beach.PDF
Wichita Photo Archives: https://www.wichitaphotos.org/searchresults.asp?txtinput=Parks&offset=20
Orville Frantz, Jr., “Parks Prepare for Swimming Season,” Parks & Recreation, May 1939 (?)
Site originally submitted by Gray Brechin on June 4, 2022.
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Allellia Freeman
J. S. Nelson
Municipal pool was filled in during integration in order to keep down the violence.
In the late 1950s and all through the 1960s, we went to “Municipal” to swim, and alternately, on occasion, to Joyland. Those were wonderful, fun-filled days. There were also some other pools…one I remember was across Seneca street from Allison Junior High. I swam there a lot, and when I was older, helped teach swimming there, as well.