Fleishhacker Pool House Facade

The ornate facade standing before you is the final surviving remnant of a structure that once defied the chilly reality of the Pacific coast. Built in nineteen twenty-five, this wall was originally part of a massive, four-hundred-fifty-foot-long bathhouse designed in the Mediterranean Italianate style. It served as the gateway to what was then the largest outdoor swimming pool in the world. The pool itself stretched one thousand feet in length and held over six million gallons of saltwater, a gargantuan engineering project that required lifeguards to patrol the waters in rowboats. While the pool was envisioned as a grand civic jewel, the reality was a bracingly cold experience that became a quintessential piece of local lore.