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Fassnight
Park Swimming Pool. The postcard is a drawing of Fassnight Pool
as it looked when the pool was opened in 1927. Note the waterfall
of spring water falling from the tiered fountain at the back of
the pool.
Fassnight Park is located at Meadowmere Street between Campbell
and Grant Avenues. It contains 28 acres of land with trees and a
stream. The Springfield Park Board purchased the land in 1924 from
Conrad and Emma Fassnight, who had traveled to Springfield with
their parents from Michigan in 1886. The foreman of the Fassnight
Park project was Godfrey Messerli. He was greatly skilled as a stonemason
and created bridges, the bathhouse, the swimming pool and other
structures using the fieldstone and Carthage stone found in the
area. The labor was done by the Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.).
In 1977 the entire park, including the swimming pool, had deteriorated
because of erosion and the fact that the intricate stonemason's
work was prohibitively expensive to repair. The pool was closed
and the city considering demolishing the swimming pool and bathhouse
and replacing them with new state-of-the-art facilities. In the
end the city decided to renovate the pool and bathhouse and preserve
their unique architecture. This may have been when the waterfall
in the pool was removed.
In 1995 a $60,000 water slide was added to Fassnight Pool. It was
intended to be a moneymaking venture, with its $3 (later $5) fee
helping to fund the swimming pool. An extended pool deck including
playground equipment inside the pool area was added later. In 1996
a hard-rubber water serpent was added to the pool. It was tethered
to the floor of the shallow end.
Fassnight Park has one of Springfield's most popular pools. The Springfield-Greene County Park Board renovated Fassnight Pool in 2009, and it remains the largest pool in the parks system today.
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