BOISE, Idaho (CBS2) — Earlier this month, the National Park Service listed the Lowell and South Municipal pools in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP.)
“The Idaho State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) is excited to see the Lowell and South Municipal Pools listed in the NRHP. Built-in 1953 as Boise’s first purpose-built municipal pools, they are architecturally significant as excellent examples of the work of Wesley Bintz, the designer of innovative above-ground swimming pools built across the United States,” said Jason Tippeconnic Fox, National Register Coordinator at SHPO, who administers the NRHP program. “As our community considers the future of these pools, it is important to understand that their architectural significance lies not in their attractive Streamline Modern-style façades but in the concept and execution of the above-ground pool building.”
In 1952, the City of Boise contracted Wesley Bintz of Lansing, Michigan to design the two pools – one next to the Lowell Elementary School and one adjacent to the South Junior High School. Bintz patented an ovoid-shaped, above-ground swimming pool design in 1923 that combined the pool and bathhouse into one building. He advertised this unique above-ground design as having several distinct advantages over traditional sunken swimming pools and by 1958 had designed approximately 100 such pools across the country. The Lowell and South Pools are excellent examples of Bintz-designed pools and are among the few surviving examples of this extremely rare building type.
Following their opening in 1953, the pools served as gathering places for children and adults across Boise until the COVID-19 pandemic forced their closure. The continued closure of the pools and uncertainty about their future prompted concerned neighborhood residents to prepare NRHP nominations to increase public awareness and organize as the Friends of the Boise Historic Pools to advocate for their rehabilitation and reopening.
Ryan Rulon, a Depot Bench resident who prepared the South Pool nomination, notes, “It is extremely gratifying to hear that South and Lowell Pools have been listed in the NRHP. The South Pool has had a significant
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