From Blair’s Pond to Measure UU: The Story of Swimming in Piedmont

Our Piedmont Recreation Department’s Walking on Wednesdays group had a record 73 walkers and four K-9 best friends at the Exedra last Wednesday for our weekly walk. It was a lovely morning, but there was a special reason for the big turnout. Piedmont Recreation Director Chelle Putzer was going to give us our very own tour of the new Piedmont Community Pool. The pool will officially open to the public on Saturday, April 11^th, but we were going to get an early look.

The pool starts a new chapter in the history of places where Piedmonters have swam. Some walkers thought this history starts in 1964 when the former community pool was built. However, it actually goes much further back and was not always as nice as the new pool.

The story starts shortly after the first European settler, Walter Blair, came to the area in 1852. He created a quarry in what is now Dracena Park to extract stone that was used to pave Oakland and Piedmont’s early streets and railways. In 1873, his crew struck water from a subterranean creek, and it turned the bottom of the quarry into a lake about 60 feet deep. Attempts to pump the water out failed and a lake formed that became an occasional swimming hole for Piedmont boys. Sadly, there were multiple drownings in it. One was in 1888 and another in 1895. The quarry was finally fenced and locked. For more than forty years, “Blair’s Pond” was there with ducks. The City finally drained and turned it into a recreational grassy field in 1997.

A second early Piedmont swimming spot was Tyson Lake. In 1914 James Tyson, a successful lumber and shipping businessman, bought thirty acres of Piedmont land to build his mansion at the top of the Glen Alpine Road/Sotelo Avenue loop. Tyson had three sons and dammed a small creek that ran through his property to create a reservoir that became a swimming hole for his sons and neighborhood boys. Tyson was a supporter of the new Piedmont Boy Scouts Council and made the lake available for scouts to earn their swimming merit badges. In the 1930s Tyson transferred the title of his lake to a homeowners association and the lake later became an attraction for local teenage boys. In 1949 four of them were caught swimming nude in it and each fined $25. Tragically, a 17-year old boy drowned in 1951 and a 19 year-old did too in 1952.

From the 1940s through the 1960s Piedmont residents swam at local natural springs, pools at Oakland clubs like the Athens Athletic Club and the Claremont Country Club, as well as at regional swim clubs and recreational parks. Some Piedmont youth learned to swim in backyard pools that were being built during this period and the Piedmont Recreation Department conducted swim classes for children in the backyard of a Sea View Avenue home too.

Meghan Bennett’s History of Piedmont website, https://www.historyofpiedmont.com/pool, tells that there was community interest in building a municipal public pool in 1954, but a $100,000 public pool bond measure was defeated by a small majority in June of that year.

By the early 1960s the lack of a Piedmont swim facility led residents to form a private Piedmont Swim Club. They raised funds to build a pool on a City-own site adjacent to the Recreation Center and in May of 1964 construction started. This was a membership club funded by residents who paid initiation fees and annual membership dues with a "buy-in" structure. When someone no longer wanted their membership they had to sell it to someone else.

Initially, in lieu of paying cash rent to the City, the club made the pool available for Recreation Department swim lessons, use by the Piedmont schools, and for public access days. Under a later lease in effect from 1993 to 2008, the club paid $38,500 in annual rent to the city. Throughout this entire period, the club was responsible for all pool expenses including the original construction, capital improvements, and routine maintenance. From 2008 to 2011 the City granted a three-year lease extension that waived the annual rent to help the club remain financially viable. However, maintenance expenses became increasingly difficult for the club, and the City took over operations in 2011 following disagreements with the club over the lease renewal.

In 2020 the aging pool was closed due to COVID-19 and structural concerns. The old pool held approximately 154,000 gallons of water but was leaking between 3,000 and 3,700 gallons each day. This significant water loss required constant pool refilling to keep its pumps running. In November 2020, Piedmont voters passed a $19.5 million Measure UU bond to build a new facility. The old pool was drained and demolished in September 2021 to make space for it.

Since 2021 the City has planned and built the new, all-electric aquatics center that meets its sustainability goals. The total cost of the new complex is approximately $34.9 to $35 million and is the largest capital project in the City of Piedmont’s history. This final amount is significantly more than the original project budget of $28.9 million that was approved before construction began in early 2023. The project was primarily funded by Measure UU, which ultimately provided approximately $25.2 million because of favorable interest rates and credit ratings.

The nearly $6 million budget gap between the initial construction estimate and the final cost was driven by several unexpected issues. Two old buried fuel tanks and soil contaminated with naturally occurring arsenic were discovered and the site had to be remediated. The City decided to use electricity to power the facility, and additional costs were incurred to make it the second all-electric municipal pool complex in California. There were also significant delays caused by severe winter weather and utility coordination with PG&E. Finally, there was a 32% spike in the California construction cost index between the initial 2020 estimate and the start of construction in 2023. 

To cover the additional costs, the City utilized a total of nine different funding sources. Over $2.1 million in private donations was raised by the Piedmont Recreation Facilities Organization and the Piedmont Beautification Foundation. Funds also came from the City’s Facilities Capital Fund and State clean energy grants and a zero-interest loan from AVA Community Energy was obtained.

After learning about this history, we made the short walk down Magnolia Avenue to the pool and found Recreation Director Chelle Putzer and Recreation Coordinator Hadley Clegg waiting for us. Chelle invited our large group to come into the lobby. There was some uncertainly whether everyone and our K-9 best friends could fit inside, but we did, and Chelle told us more about the pool.

Registration software in the lobby will be used to scan memberships to enter the facility. There are two pools. A shallower activity pool has three 25-yard lap lanes and will be for kids and swim lessons. Its temperature will be 83 to 85 degrees. The larger, 27-meter Settlemier Family Competition Pool has 12 lanes that start at seven feet of depth and are 12.5 feet at the diving well. Its temperature will be 79 to 80 degrees.

The Smegal Family Poolside Room, complete with a TV on the wall, is a multi-purpose community room that will be available to rent for children’s parties. Kids will have to pass a swim test to gain access to the larger pool and there will be swim instructors for both young people and adults.

The pool will be funded on a public model, both Piedmont residents and non-residents are welcome. An annual pass for Piedmont adults (19 to 64) residents costs $891 and for seniors (65+) it is $668. The fees for non-residents are higher. There are also summer and drop-in day passes. And from April 11 through April 30 everyone can swim for $5 per visit and try out the new pool. Details on pool passes, pricing, and general pool information are available at piedmont.ca.gov/pool. Walker and former Piedmont Swim Club officer Greg Slatoff said he had already bought his annual pass.

Chelle took us out to walk around and inspect the pools. K-9 best friends had to stay in the lobby. Dog paddling is not allowed. We reassembled by the competition pool for a large group photo. Chelle then took us up to the rooftop Ellis Family Pavilion to check it out and enjoy the view of the pool, the Recreation Center, and the San Francisco peninsula. Solar panels on its roof provide energy for the facility. The pavilion will be available for rentals too. Additionally, tennis players from the adjacent Corey Reich Tennis Center courts will be able to access restrooms in the pavilion.

We greatly enjoyed the tour and expressed our appreciation to Chelle Putzer for it. However, there was still some time for a little more walking. We exited the pavilion through its Bonita Avenue gate and went up Bonita to Park Way and then down to Hillside and back to Magnolia. Along the way we talked some more with friends about the beautiful, new Piedmont Community Pool.