The historic building survives with a new use
This historic building in Shelbyville, Indiana was originally the bath house for what was for decades the town’s public swimming pool. The William A. Porter Memorial Swimming Pool Bathhouse was built to honor the memory of the son of a Shelbyville family. This Art Deco building was dedicated in 1930.
Sometime in the 1960’s showing pool and back of the building
The pool was closed in 1998 and subsequently was demolished. The building is currently being used by the local Chamber of Commerce and serves as the Shelby County Tourism & Visitors’ Bureau. It is located on the north side of town and is one of the first structures that visitors see when they come into town.
Roadtirement 
That was a huge pool, it’s sad for the residents that it was demolished.
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Apparently a new city pool was built somewhere else in town so there was only one summer without a pool. At least they kept the old bath house and reused it. Thanks, John
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I see, thanks.
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Bath houses seem like such a strange thing these days. Cool building. Old Art Deco really got around in the 30s 🤔 Albuquerque had large public pools that have been demolished. My parents used the pools as babysitters in the summers. My mom worked part-time and would drop us off at the pool on her way to work, and pick us up on the way home. I used to be a really good swimmer and diver. I have no desire to get in a pool these days. Pools are so costly to keep in good repair.
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Swimming pools were good baby sitting places! I liked to swim, couldn’t dive well, but oh could I nail a cannonball, can opener, seater or watermelon! Thanks for sharing, Tim.
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I was too skinny to have much effect with a cannonball. But that skinniness made me a really fast swimmer.
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I get that. I wasn’t a fast swimmer, but sure enjoyed the water.
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This is a great memory. Sad those days are gone isn’t it?
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There are lots of things gone that we miss, JC. I fondly remember the public pool in my home town. You had to take a test to see if you could go to the “deep end” and then you got a patch that you pinned on your swim suit. No Patch, no deep end!
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This post hit me with a big dose of nostalgia.
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Thanks, Geoff, it did us too when we saw the building and learned of the history.
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What a huge pool, lovely! What a pity it was demolished. Whats behind the building now, a parking lot?
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There is a grass lawn and a gravel lot that the city uses for a material lay down yard. We’re told a new public pool was built on the other side of the town.
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Like so many historic buildings, this one has found a new life. 🙂 We have plenty of beautiful old Victorian homes around here, most end up chopped up inside, to make apartments. One, obviously wealthy family, actually renovated a large mansion AND the stables back to period. Yes, it’s still a single family home, too.
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That sounds like a place we’d like to see. And restoring the stables? Fantastic!
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You might also like to visit my old work place, Kingston Penitentiary. It is featured in movies and they give tours in the summer.
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Oh yes, that would interest us greatly. We have been to the Mansfield Ohio Prison, the set for the Shawshank Redemption movie (among others).
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