Picture-perfect pool now defunct
I have recently become aware that Shreveport had a saltwater pool. According to the only information I can nd, a notation under a photo on the website “oldshreveport.com,” the pool was located behind Hamilton Terrace School off Louisiana Avenue. The pool was lled in during the 1980s. I am not from Shreveport, so in driving around the school matching up the photo with the school, the photo actually looks like the McNeill Street side of the school. And with the concrete work on that side for what I assume to be an old football eld, did that side use to be the Louisiana Avenue side or am I completely off? As I said, I am not from Shreveport. Any help will be appreciated.
You are correct. The swimming pool complex was located on the McNeill Street side of Hamilton Terrace School, near the intersection with Creswell Avenue. The pool was built and opened in 1919 to commemorate the end of the rst World War.
The of cial name of the facility was the Victory Natatorium. This was the rst of the municipal pools in Shreveport and it was by far the largest. The pool featured saltwater because it was easier to maintain, and although the city of Shreveport, had used chlorinated fresh water in the city water system since the turn of the century, saltwater was believed to be healthier for bathing.
The complex became regionally famous and was the subject of several postcards. Somewhat modeled on Bath House Row in Hot Springs, Ark., the natatorium included concrete bleachers (some of which still exist), bathhouses, diving boards, a promenade on all four sides of the pool and a giant spray pipe and nozzle that constantly refreshed the water in the pool. The spray was so powerful, it could almost reach the entire width of the pool.
As Shreveport grew to the south and west, the pool saw a decline in the number of swimmers. After decades of enjoyment by the public, the facility was nally closed. The city viewed the natatorium as a liability and a hazard. The pool was left in place but lled in, and the bathhouses were destroyed in 1992. With the exception of the bathhouses, anything dif cult to demolish was left in place, so portions of the bleachers and handrails, some of the steps leading down to the pool and the outline base structures still remain. The best way to see the pool is to drive on Foster Street behind Hamilton Terrace School. This street intersects McNeill Street. It is a short walk to the northern edge of complex. The area was converted to a practice eld, and its limits are the outline of the old pool.
The hill on which the natatorium was built has long been considered to be a healthy place. During the Civil War, the entire hill was a training and barracks ground called Camp Boggs. It was named for Brigadier Gen. William Robertson Boggs, the chief of staff for Lt. Edmund Kirby Smith.
Boggs was also the chief engineer of the Trans-Mississippi Department based in Shreveport. Boggs designed and led the construction on all of the Confederate forts in the Red River Valley between March 1863 and June 1865. Camp Boggs was the compound that quartered the Third Louisiana Infantry Regiment. Among its members was Sgt. Willie H. Tunnard, who, after the war, stayed in Shreveport and became the editor of both The Shreveport Times and The Shreveport Journal.
Dr. Gary Joiner is the Leonard and Mary Anne Selber Professor of History at LSUS, where he is also director of the Red River Regional Studies Center. Questions for “The History Doctor” may be addressed to editor@ theforumnews.com.
