Herman Brown Swimming Pool, 1955-1976
There once was an outdoor pool on campus.
The existence of an outdoor pool on the Southwestern campus might sound crazy to anyone who has recently attended Southwestern and dreamed of some kind way to escape the summer (and spring and fall) heat while still being outside. However, for a while, the University had an outdoor pool located behind the Jim West Gymnasium, where the back patio of the Olin Building is now.
The Brown Pool was built after the completion of the West Gym, when the Navy located water-based training for the V-12 Unit in the San Gabriel River and everyone noticed that it would all go better if there were a multipurpose pool on campus. President Score brought up the idea to the Board, and after several conversations, it was agreed the outdoor pool would be built in the spring of 1955 with funding provided by Herman Brown.
Even though the University had money that could have been allocated to the project, Brown decided to build one at his own expense so that the pool could be larger than what the school could afford. This allowed for the school’s funds which had been provided to them by the West Foundation to complete West Gym to be better spent on the Student Union Building to provide further amenities for students.
Although the Brown Pool only lasted a generation and has long been gone from our campus, it provides another example of the impact that the Brown family’s philanthropy had on our campus. More important, the pool became a central recreation place on campus. It was the place where teachers would meet their new colleagues as they moved to Georgetown every summer at a pool party. To alumni who witnessed it and were able to use it, it was also the place to attend swim meets or to hang out with friends in the sun. Organizations such as Phi Mu and Zeta Tau Alpha held pool party events at the Brown Pool. Finally, like the Kurth Tennis Courts and the Kurth-Landrum Golf Course at the time, the Brown Pool drew members of the Georgetown community regularly to campus as well.
Brown Pool was removed in 1976 when the Sid W. Richardson Physical Education Center was developed to include an indoor pool. That natatorium still exists today as part of the Robertson Center, which was built around Sid Richardson in the 1990s, and the old cornerstone of West Gym is now located in front of OIin, but nothing remains of Brown Pool itself.
