History

Evans Pool: The Story Behind How Green Lake Pool Got its Name

April 12, 2017 9:11pm
Evans Pool 1955 via Seattle Municipal Archives

Evans Pool 1955 via Seattle Municipal Archives

When I first moved to Green Lake I had a heck of a time remembering the name of the pool. (I won’t leave you in suspense if you don’t know… its Evans Pool). But I kept googling Green Lake pool when I tried to find out the pool hours and classes. While most of the other pools in the city are named after the location Queen Anne Pool, Meadowbrook pool etc, Green Lake was not. Hmm… very mysterious.

Little information is on the Evans Pool site about its history. So we dug into the Seattle Municipal Archives and found that the pool, which was built in February 1955 was named after two Recreation Directors of the Parks Department, Ben and Lou Evans.

Ben Evans is shown on the right in this undated photo via Seattle Municipal Archives

According to the Seattle Municipal Archives “Over 50,000 signatures were gathered in 1952 in support of a pool at Green Lake. Voters approved money for the Green Lake pool in a Park Department bond in 1952 and ground was broken in 1954. Designed by Lamont & Fey, unique features of the pool at the time were port- holes allowing underwater viewing of swimmers.”

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