Restored Tietze Park Swimming Pool Makes a Splash With Preservation Achievement Award

When I saw the 2021 Preservation Dallas Awards this year, my heart beat a bit faster because I used to live mere feet from one of the award recipients — the Tietze Park swimming pool — for many years. Although I never dipped a toe into the pool (I never had time!) I loved living across the street. 

An Old East Dallas Institution

Tietze Park is one of those Old East Dallas parks that is not too big and not too small. It welcomes you with the sounds of children playing baseball, climbing trees, riding bikes, and of course, frolicking in the Tietze swimming pool. For a young woman just out of college who was missing friends and family, Tietze Park provided the perfect embrace that allowed me to make my first home here. 

It’s not called simply Tietze swimming pool any longer. With the recent renovations it has been christened the Tietze Nieghborhood Family Aquatic Center. 

Historic Provenance

The history of Tietze Park goes back to 1924 when it was established as Keith Park on five acres at the intersection of Llano and Clements, directly across from where my former balcony would be built in 1937. In 1934 the park was renamed after Dallas Parks Superintendent Robert Tietze.

In 1945 the park was expanded to its current size, extending from Llano Avenue to the south, to Vanderbilt Avenue to the north, and from Clements Street to the east, to Skillman Street to the west and has continued to serve the needs of this neighborhood as it has grown. 

The first improvement at the park was a wading pool, which is unfortunately no longer in existence. A stone pavilion followed in 1934 designed by Kleuser & Woodruff, Architects. As the neighborhood continued to grow, a master plan for the 1945 expansion of Tietze Park was created by the national landscape architecture firm Hare & Hare. It included the existing wading pool and stone pavilion, a new swimming pool, pool house, and baseball field. 

Construction began on the swimming pool and pool house in 1946, also designed by M.C. Kleuser using the same stone and a design similar to the pavilion, housing restrooms and office facilities.

The nomination form includes the following historic information:

In 1950 an addition to the pavilion was constructed to house concessions, enabling the sale of food and drinks at the swimming pool and park. Other improvements were made to the park over the years. Nestled in the midst of a mostly residential area, with its iconic stone buildings and neighborhood pool, Tietze Park has been a beloved neighborhood fixture for nearly a century. The park also enjoys the support of Friends of Tietze Park, a group that has assisted the City of Dallas and the Parks Department in maintaining and improving the park over the years, and has long advocated for the preservation and continuous use of the park and its historic structures.

A Multifaceted Restoration

McCoy Collaborative Preservation Architecture (MCPA) and its predecessor firm, Quimby McCoy Preservation Architecture, provided the Master Planning services for the City of Dallas Park and Recreation Department to guide the development of the park, and full architectural services for the restoration of the historic structures, new walkways, playground facilities, lighting, and site furniture over a period of years from 2004 to 2007. 

So, it was only natural that In 2016 MCPA was contracted to restore the historic bathhouse, pavilion, and concessions building, as well as constructing a new filtration building at the Tietze Park Swimming Pool. This was part of the City of Dallas Aquatics Master Plan, which redeveloped the small neighborhood pool into the Tietze Neighborhood Family Aquatic Center you see today, completed in 2019.

It was not easy. These projects seldom are. But the historic significance of the buildings and their importance to the neighborhood was never in doubt. It was just a  matter of finding the right people and making the right compromises to achieve success. 

The bathhouse now houses up-to-date accessible men’s, women’s, and family restroom and shower facilities. The addition houses concessions, ticketing facilities, first aid, and staff offices. A new filtration building was also added and was designed to complement the original historic buildings. McCoy Collaborative served as the architect for the project, a consultant to Kimley Horn Landscape Architects, Engineers, and Planners.

We don’t generally think about a swimming pool facility in a park as a historic preservation project. But all you have to do is take one look at this architecture to understand it’s well worth preserving.  I was lucky enough to look out at it every day for many years. I’ve promised myself that, this summer, I’m finally going to dip a toe into the Tietze Park Swimming Pool!

IF YOU GO:

The Preservation Dallas Awards will be presented online this year on June 30 at 6 p.m. You can register for the event here.