The Pool

The pool—originally built in 1927—was operated by the Bull family as a public swimming facility on the spring site. For decades it was the social center of the community: a place where Taylors families spent their summers, where teenagers came of age, where the spring’s water still served a public purpose even after the hotel and sanitarium were gone. J.A. Bull died in April 1949 at age 77, leaving an estate valued at $133,381.67. Daughter Margaret Bull inherited the bottling plant, mineral wells, and swimming pool. The family that had owned the land since 1903 continued to operate the pool as a public facility.

For a generation, Chick Springs was the place to be on a summer Saturday. There was a tin slide you had to throw water on to make slippery, a high dive, a concession stand, a jukebox, and a shag dance floor. Bands played on the sand in back. Families brought KFC and ate at picnic tables by the creek after church on Sundays. Danny Bull gave swimming lessons; Miss Bull taught at local schools. Kids walked from neighborhoods across Highway 29—some sneaking through the old culvert under the road, the same culvert the state had built that caused the devastating 1929 flood. Like most public recreation in the mid-century South, the pool was segregated. Black residents of the surrounding community—families who lived within sight of the property, who had their own deep history with this land—were excluded. This was the last era of public access to the spring, and for part of the community, there had been no access at all. The temperature dropped noticeably at the site. The spring-fed water was famously cold.

By the mid-1970s the pool was closed and drained. Around the same time, the Taylors Garden Club erected historical marker No. 23-13 at the site. One era ended; an attempt to memorialize it began. Within a few years, the marker would be stolen and the property would disappear behind a fence. Jean Flynn wrote the accompanying booklet, A Short History of Chick Springs, at the Garden Club’s request.