Dip Back in Time at the Venetian Pool in Coral Gables, Florida

Because when given the option to sink or swim, we ask…Can’t we just float? It’s so much easier.

Here’s how a visit to Coral Gables’ Venetian Pool taught me that a quick dip back in time is sometimes all we need to analyze the present and figure out a way to swimmingly move forward.

I don’t remember exactly when I learned to swim or if all the kicking, paddling, splashing, and under water nose-holding I do can even be considered a form of “swimming.” Perhaps it is just my attempt at, quite literally, staying afloat.

I have always been around water. Oceans, rivers, lakes, and swimming pools, you name it…I’ve flailed around in it.

Growing up in Miami, boating and swimming were part of daily life. In fact, if you weren’t tan, wet, with feet covered in sand — what were you even doing?

There are three swimming pools that are near and dear to my heart:

The first, sat right behind my home in the trailer park where I grew up. We had the coveted lot directly behind the swimming pool, which meant, we could technically hop the fence and go for dip whenever we wanted. We didn’t of course, but that didn’t stop others from trespassing into our yard and doing so. Our Rottweiler, Joe; however, put a quick stop to that. I only have a few photos of me in the pool.

It’s surprising that there are even photos of me bobbing above water or out of the pool. I was usually wearing goggles and creeping around in between others legs while searching for “lost treasures” or hanging around underneath the big lion head, where the echo was best for belting out the Little Mermaid’s Part of Your World, while my long hair floated around in the water gently covering what I imagined to be a seashell bra. 

Bell Haven Trailer Park Postcard, 1951

Living in Miami’s Bell Haven Trailer Park was a kid’s dream and this pool had a lot to do with it. Before the neighborhood was known as Liberty City, before I moved in, before the 1980 riots, sometime in the 1950s it looked like this. A paradise of sorts.

Bell Haven Trailer Park, Photographer Charles Lee Barron, Department of Commerce Collection, January 1953

I remember seeing these photos in the park office as a kid. While the concept of time and the 1950s was not as clear to me then, I remember thinking how pretty this was and I imagined everyone lounging poolside — rather than cannonballing off the deep end.

Bell Haven Trailer Park, Photographer Charles Lee Barron, Department of Commerce Collection, January 1953

My second favorite swimming pool is the oddly heart / bean shaped pool I currently have in my backyard. I never set out to have a home with a pool. I did not think I could afford one. But the home that suited our needs happened to have one. It went down like this: We were desperate. We lived in a tiny one bedroom. My father-in-law had just passed away. My mother-in-law was recovering from Leukemia and developing all sorts of neurological conditions that left her helpless and in need of support. We then needed a home for three and so the house hunting began. During our search, when we had just about given up hope, our realtor mentioned there was a large, but outdated home, that we might be interested in. In was in good condition and had potential. There was no mention of a pool, so imagine our surprise when we stepped into the backyard and nearly nose-dived in it.

Long story short…we bought the house and five years in, we love it. It now serves as a great source of physical therapy for my mother-in-law and, as her primary caregiver, a much-needed respite for me. The pool is beginning to show its age and may need a makeover soon, but for now, on hot days, it does the trick. It is our little oasis in the backyard. And most of all, it reminds me of the good days at the Bell Haven Trailer Park pool. If you listen closely, on a quiet Sunday afternoon, you may still hear me humming like the Little Mermaid — sans the seashell bra. I might be a little too old for that!

And my third favorite pool in all the world, is by far the grandest I have ever seen. It is the Venetian Pool in Coral Gables.

It’s my favorite, perhaps because like all the others, it has the ability to transport…to take us back in time.

 

 

 

 

Reflective of Coral Gables, dubbed “The City Beautiful”, the pool showcases many timeless Mediterranean-style details such as arcades, porticos, palm trees, bridges, waterfalls, observation towers, fountains, Venetian-style mooring posts, an island, a sandy beach, and grottos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The pool, which ranges in depth from 4 to 8 feet, holds about 820,000 gallons of fresh water that is pumped in from the Biscayne Aquifer and drained every night during the busy months, using a filtering system that is unique to the pool. 

 

 

 

 

The Venetian Pool has undergone several historical renovations in recent years and, since 1981, has had the distinct designation of being the only swimming pool to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places, ensuring that it will be around well past a century — forever transporting us back to those Roaring Twenties. 

Venetian Casino, Coral Gables, Florida

Venetian Pool high dive, 1927

Venetian Pool Opening Day, featuring the Jan Garber Orchestra, 1924

Venetian Pool Casino Loggia, 1925

Venetian Pool, Don Lanning Company’s group of girls on the island, 1925

Venetian Pool Casino Waitresses, 1924

Annette Kellerman, Venetian Pool Mermaid, 1925

 

 

 

 

 

One of the things that stood out to me while researching this story and looking at countless photos of folks, including my younger self, enjoying themselves at swimming pools, is how happy they were. Smiling, splashing about, floating, and relaxing with seemingly no care in the world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don’t know about you, but when I hop in the pool, in addition to my flamingo floatie, I bring my worries with me. The rigorousness of swimming often agitates the situation and tires me out. And holding my breath and sinking to the silent bottom of the pool is only a temporary fix that leaves me gasping for air.