Neptune Swim Club

The Washington Park Pool property has been a source of childhood memories for sixty years.  Whether you were a member of the old Neptune Swim Club, rode your bike to the Washington Park Pool every day during the summers of the 80’s to hang out with friends and enjoy a frozen Snickers during the adult swim, or were lucky enough to grow up with today’s modern facility, the pool has been a memorable part of your life.  This is its story.

As the 1950s ended, Washington had never had a community pool.  As the 1960s dawned, an opportunity arose.  An advertisement appeared in the local paper about constructing a new private pool west of town.  It is unclear exactly where this pool was to be, but probably in the area of Hillcrest Golf Course.  A January 1960 advertisement spoke of the Dip & Dive Swim Club, which was to open on June 1, 1960.  Membership to this swanky facility was $50 per year or $100 for a lifetime membership and was only granted through an interview process.

Not much is known about why this pool never materialized, but by May, over $17,000 in membership fees had been returned to members because the pool hadn’t been built.

Fascinatingly, at the same time the Dip & Dive memberships were being returned (May 1960), another swim club, the Neptune Swim Club, announced a membership drive for its proposed pool. This club called the Neptune Swim Club, was to be located in Devonshire Estates. The initial costs for a family membership were a $100 initiation fee and a $50 yearly cost. Original advertisements list a limit of 750 families, and like the Dip & Dive, there seems to have been an interview process for acceptance.

The owners were in a rush to complete the pool by August in order to save at least part of the 1960 swimming season, and they did meet their deadline. In August 1960, the pool opened, but construction of the clubhouse and kiddie pool had not yet begun. 

In the first couple of years of the pool’s existence, approximately 300 families were members, far short of the 750 limit. Many of those families were given memberships as incentives to purchase lots in Devonshire. Suffice it to say the pool was not making much money in the early years.

The owner of the Neptune Swim Club was Don Smelz, also the key developer of the entire Devonshire subdivision.  As early as February 1963, Smelz approached the city council asking for a rezoning of the property to commercial so he could convert it to a dining establishment and cocktail lounge.  Devonshire residents attended meetings in droves to oppose such a change.  Smelz went back and forth with the city for years seeking a liquor license for the property to try to make it profitable, although one of the worst-kept secrets in town at the time was that liquor was being consumed there routinely during evening functions.

A solution for Smelz eventually came from the Washington Park District.  When the Park District was first formed in 1969, it sought properties to acquire for its first venture.  Three were presented to them, one of them being the Neptune Swim Club for purchase as a park pool.  The park district passed on the offer at that time because they directed all of their focus and resources to a different option: the Heyl property, which became Washington Park.

Fast-forward to 1972. Washington Park had been basically completed, and Smelz was offering the pool to the park district for the discounted price of $165,000.

After a thorough study of the property, the park board went to the voters with a $260,000 referendum to cover the purchase of the pool and the construction of a second pool on the property to handle expected attendance bumps with the switch to a public facility.

When the votes were tallied on May 20, 1972, the referendum passed.  It was not a landslide victory, as it only passed 472-337 with 25% of Washington’s registered voters showing up to vote, but it got the ball rolling.

Construction of the second pool began in the Fall of 1972 and continued as weather permitted to be ready for the 1973 swimming season. 

The next order of business was to hire a pool manager. Very early in the process, the park board knew someone in the teaching field would be an ideal candidate for the mostly summertime job, so they focused on hiring Mike Adams.

From 1973 to 1986, the pool changed very little, but in 1987, a study revealed some glaring needs for renovation. For the next few years, improvements were made, the most noticeable of which was an expanded kiddie area, including shelters and a second pool.

In late 2005 a complete overhaul of the Washington Park Pool began.  The clubhouse was torn down and replaced, and the kiddie area was modernized.

The new and improved pool opened to the public on June 10, 2006.