Comments on: Marquette Natatorium Getting Spruced Up?

By: Mary Lewis Schaefer '63

Mary Lewis Schaefer '63 — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 01:00:07 +0000

I did swim at the Marquette Natatorium when I was 6 or 7 which would have been '51 or '52 so don't know what year it was re-opened, but it was. I thought it was exotic (not the words of a 6 yr old but that's the impression it left) to be able to swim indoors. I remember the very green water so the pool must have been painted green. My dad worked at the Cement Plant for 47 years. I drove by the plant and the Natatorium on our last trip home last summer and it did look forlorn. I loved the shots of Vandeven's, too. As a kid I didn't like the way it smelled - maybe it was the meat or ripe produce... Mom would often pick me up after school (at Trinity) and take me with her to Vandeven's. Thanks for these great photos.

By: Janet (Wood) Klenn

Janet (Wood) Klenn — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:51:19 +0000

It could be my fond memories of the Natatorium was because I went to May greene School. The Country Club and the Capaha Pools were out of reach.

By: Janet (Wood) Klenn

Janet (Wood) Klenn — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:20:46 +0000

I fondly remember the Natatorium. My Dad worked at the cement plant. My sister,brother and I went every chance we got. My family lived one block from May Greene School so it was not too far to go. We all learned to swim and dive there. On special days you could take a guest. It was nice to invite your best friend on those days. The life guard was Lardy Davis (a very large man) but nice to kids. The time period we went there was in late 40s and earlly 50s. Marquette Cement was a very good company to its employees. I always felt blessrd that my dad worked there. In the early days of my dads employment they would have a Christmas party at the Arena. All family members would get treats and each family got to select a gift out of the special catalog. Sorry I don’t have any information on the place today

By: Bill Stone

Bill Stone — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 20:13:51 +0000

I remember swimming at the natatorium. It was a lonely place because most times you would be the only family there. I think there was a rule that it was for Marquette Cement families only so you couldn’t even take a guest. There was a problem with regulating the temperature so it was usually hot. It was also very loud as the noise bounded off the walls. It was more fun to go to the Capaha Park swimming pool or the Country Club pool. I probably first went there in 1950 or 1951 and last swam there in 1961 or 1962. I asked my Mother if she could remember any details about when the pool was concreted over. At 86, she couldn’t remember any details but it was closed becaused of the lack of use and the cost of maintenance and utilities. Dad, now deceased, was plant manager and retired in 1982. The pool was concreted over by that time, after being closed up for awhile. The building was being used for housing cement plant guests, many of whom were there to go goose hunting. I have no current info about the place as I left Cape in 1983.

By: Ken Steinhoff

Ken Steinhoff — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 14:04:08 +0000

Was it filled in or just floored over?

By: Ken Steinhoff

Ken Steinhoff — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 14:01:26 +0000

Laurie,

Maybe the pull that you felt was caused by the Stephen King boiler room Terry described.

By: Laurie Everett

Laurie Everett — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 13:44:44 +0000

Wow! How terrible…I am sure that is not what you were thinking when no one showed up.

I have never been inside the building, but one of the reasons that I have always liked it was because I was drawn to it. Not sure why, but something about it always pulled me in.

By: Lila Steinhoff

Lila Steinhoff — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 04:42:23 +0000

Terry, you are right about the temperature in the natatorium being way too hot. It was like a sauna in there, even in the coldest part of winter.

I never saw the boiler room, but I remember the spookiness of the place, too. It was so well built that no sound came in from the outside. Jacqie (Bill) Jackson used to sing in there, and it would echo off the walls… his own person sound system. ha! But, if you were in there with no one around, it was kind of like being able to hear your own heart beat. It was the kind of silence you could feel. Major creepy!

By: Terry Hopkins

Terry Hopkins — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 02:02:06 +0000

Okay, I confess I was a guard and swim coach at the Natatorium too…Bill Jackson (Jacqie), Marty Cocoran and Donna Mason and I did some guarding too at the old monster. The joke was at the time, the building was build so strong that it would cost more to destroy than to keep open… so they kept it open for the total of 200 swimmers that came an swam over the winter. Lucky for me I had a job at Sides-Miller Men’s store on Broadway too so I did not have sit by with some a be lonely at night in the building. I was a little spooky there and NO ONE was around, so the city fathers decreed that there was always to be TWO people at the pool.
Bill (Jacqie) and I would bring all the swim team kids twice a week to the pool and they would swim like crazy in the 20 yard little monster and the waves were two to three feet high due to the poor design of the gutters. I remember the little kids (seven and eight year olds) getting really drowned in storm like indoor seas.
The Heat was always way too hot (Mrs. Sambo and Mrs Rickard liked hot water for her water ballet) and one day the boiler went out, so Marty Corcoran and I went into the bowles of the monster and looked at what was under the pool. If you were thinking of a GOOD Steven King like scene you would be correct. Monstrous boilers from the 1930’s with pipes and locomotive like sounds coming from the boiler that heated the building and the pool. I remember we lit the boiler and ran upstairs and only went down there after that when we absolutely had too!
Those were good times for all, but the place was a dump, but when you have nothing to compare it with then I guess things were just fine. Good times and good experiences for the kids of the day getting to swim indoors when we were just about people between Memphis and St. Louis that had an indoor pool or Natatorium.

By: Tim Pensel

Tim Pensel — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 23:30:19 +0000

The natatorium was indeed filled in and has been used by Buzzi Unicem (the current owners) as a meeting facility and as housing for its out-of-town clients while goose hunting.