A Texas shaped pool in Plano (conveniently named Texas Pool) is seeking to be designated as a Texas Historical Landmark according to the Dallas Morning News.    In Texas, a great pool is an historic landmark.  Some of Red’s fondest memories are of hot summer days spent at the local pool completely wasting time with friends while his grandmother patiently kept watch under the aluminum awning on what must have been an incredibly uncomfortable set of bleachers.  If you are in Plano or the environs consider getting a membership at the Texas Pool.  Doing a watermelon off the one meter board into the Panhandle seems irresistible to Red.

Fifty-four years after the Texas Pool’s opening, its board of directors is working to make the pool a Texas historical landmark. Built in 1960 and opened the following year, the 168,000-gallon saltwater pool shaped like Texas has for decades served as a community hub in the Plano suburbs from May to September.

Even though they have not yet confirmed whether theirs is the first Texas-shaped pool, the Texas Pool’s proponents remain convinced it is unique and worthy of historic designation. They say the pool is a remnant of the historic 1950s growth of suburbs that had fueled population growth around the outskirts of Dallas decades ago.

The Texas Pool “is a recapturing of those slow mellow days we’ve lost in our technological race for success,” said Janet Moos, Texas Pool Foundation CEO. “It’s been frozen in time in many ways.”

The Texas Pool wouldn’t be the first pool to be deemed an official historic site. In Austin, the Deep Eddy Pool is listed in the National Register of Historic Places as the oldest pool in Texas, along with the Barton Springs Pool.

For a site to be granted historic designation, its proponents must prove the site is at least 50 years old, maintains structural integrity and has historical significance. The Texas Pool board in particular needs to prove its pool is uniquely noteworthy compared to other Texas-shaped pools and that the pool was part of a historical trend, said Gregory Smith, National Register coordinator for the Texas Historical Commission.

Moos is currently collaborating with the pool’s historian, Cynthia Caton, to search for and compile any historical background about the pool. They say there is no written history for the pool and they lack details about who built the pool and other key players in the pool’s history. They are asking anyone with historical connections to the pool to reach out to them as they compile applications for historical designation. “It really is a matter of finding the right person,” Caton said.