For nearly 50 years, San Francisco’s Fleishhacker Pool was one of, if not the, largest heated swimming pools in the world. Built by philanthropist and civic leader Herbert Fleishhaker, the pool opened in 1925 and was one of the city’s most grandiose features. It measured 1,000 by 150 feet, held a whopping 6.5 million gallons of seawater and could accommodate 10,000 bathers at a time.
It was so large the military used it for large-scale drills and training. When open to the public, lifeguards used rowboats to patrol the waters.
Unfortunately, the years of high use coupled with under-funding for much-needed repairs and renovations resulted in steady deterioration and poor water quality.
Despite its continued widespread use and immeasurable value to the community, the pool was closed in 1971 and would sit empty for nearly 30 years. It was finally demolished in 2000, its massive volume filled in with sand and gravel.
Today, the pool’s footprint is covered by a parking lot for the San Francisco Zoo. All that remains is the pool house, now owned the city’s Zoological Society, and the distant memories of one of the grandest manmade bodies of water ever built in the Western U.S.
