Images: Fleishhacker Pool House
Back in the 1920s, the Fleishhacker Pool was the finishing touch in "the symbolic 'watering' of San Francisco," and the city of San Francisco had spared no expense. San Francisco banker Herbert Fleishhacker built the opulent public pool for an estimated $1.5 million, a grand amount at that time.
Located in the far southwest corner of the city,just next to the SF Zoo, the pool was the largest swimming pool in the United States, and could (allegedly) be seen from space. Seawater was pumped in from the Pacific Ocean, heating 2800 gallons a minute from 60 to 75 degrees.
What remains today is the pool house, barely recognizable from its glory days.
Flickr photog Kapshure, who snapped the above shots of the pool house, reminisce on the pool house. He explains: "Buttressing the edge of the the pool was the 450-foot-long Bath House — a Mediterranean, Italianate structure with three elaborate entrances, all surrounded by an Ionic order of pilasters. Inside were separate wings for men, women, and children. These wings were naturally illuminated by 22 skylights. Upstairs was a grand restaurant that looked out to the 1000-foot-long pool on one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other."
SFist asked Jeff Fleishhacker (i.e., Herbert's great-grand-nephew) about the pictures, the namesake pool and its current condition.
He tells us, "I'd always figured it had been bull-dozed, but I guess not, because they appear to be pics of the derelict pool house of the old Fleishhacker Pool. The pool is obviously gone, but the pool house remains, and is apparently some kind of dystopic home for junkies."
And how.
Maintenance costs, the popularity of the automobile (which meant families could travel new destinations), and the fact that west side of San Francisco is an icebox resulted in the pool's closure in 1971.
Here's a history of the pool, and more shots here.