\n Bath House, 1979 – present<\/strong><\/p>\n
![\"Swimming](\"http:\/\/staging.pinemountainsettlement.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/swimming_pool_451-300x225.jpg\")
Swimming Pool and Bath House. View of newly\u00a0painted pool, c. 1979. [swimming_pool_451.jpg]<\/p><\/div>The Swimming Pool was built in 1923 and was used steadily in the programs of the boarding school. In 1938 it was briefly closed in the summer to give it a remodel and again in 1960s when it was given an even more extensive remodel.<\/p>\n
The work on the pool in the 1960s was at the request of the State Department of Health, including a new filtration system that brought the pool into state compliance.\u00a0The original concrete pool was fed by water from the cool Limestone Creek that runs from the School’s reservoir. The water was\u00a0of excellent quality and exceptionally cold in temperature. It was ironic that the “filtering” of the water with a full filtration system was before the full filtration of the reservoir water for the campus.<\/p>\n
The three-door Bath House (Change House)<\/strong> was added to the pool area in 1979 and is constructed of local stone. It is a one-story rectangular structure with a gabled roof. Along with the construction of the Bath House, the pool was coated with an aqua paint in its interior and a small triangular wading pool was added next to the larger pool. During the period of the 1960s until the 1990s the pool was heavily used by the Pine Mountain community and was a welcome relief from\u00a0summer heat.<\/p>\n The construction of the pool was at the request of students who wanted the pool as part of their recreation offerings and they actively participated in raising and contributing\u00a0money for the construction of the pool. The students saved money by eating selected meals or cocoa and rice once a week, in order to contribute toward the purchase of materials to build the pool. The pool allowed many students to become swimmers and provided them with skills that would otherwise have been unattainable. Few local creeks had deep and clean holes of water that could provide safe opportunities for learning how to swim.<\/p>\n The pool was also a location for rituals associated with celebration. It served as a favorite “dunking” place for new grooms after they were just married. It also led to gold medals in the Senior Olympics for one boarding school student (Lela Christian<\/a>) who won national recognition for her high diving skills while in her late 70s.<\/p>\n It was with considerable reluctance that the School closed the pool in the 1990s after some seven decades of use. The cost of upkeep, new state regulations, and insurance costs became too great for the limited budget of the School.<\/p>\n For the better part of the 1990s and 2000s the pool sat empty and slowly became an eyesore in the bucolic landscape. Attempts to integrate it into the Environmental Education programs never were realized. Finally, in the summer of 2013 the pool was filled with dirt\u00a0and the area graded for construction. A possible community pavilion or a recreation and meeting area has been suggested.<\/p>\n The “burial” of the pool was without ceremony or fanfare, but it will long remain in the memory of any who jumped into its cool and refreshing waters,\u00a0who struggled with their first attempts to swim, who learned to hold their breath under water, or sprung\u00a0fearlessly from the diving boards. Most of all, the laughter and squeals of delight of children echoing off the mountains are now\u00a0missed in the heat of summer.<\/p>\n SWIMMING POOL &\u00a0BATH HOUSE Gallery<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\t\t
\n