The Vienna Pool, Part 2: An Issue Across 75 Years

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Introduction

The second push for a municipal swimming pool in Vienna originated in the mid-1960s, more than a dozen years after the failure of the first effort. Circa 1966, Vienna began to develop plans for a town pool, estimating the cost at $150,000, according to an account several years later. Town officials then “batt[ed] this around for years,” according one of Vienna’s mayors in that era, Joe Spriggs.1

Opportunity Arises After Community Center Opens

Bureaucratic imperatives may have played a role in resurrecting the issue, considering the timing. In 1962, Vienna established its Town Recreation Department. In late 1965, the Town upgraded the Recreation Director position from part- to full-time in anticipation of the opening of the Community Center. In April 1966, the Community Center opened. In 1962, an indoor pool had been considered for the Community Center by the board of the nonprofit responsible for that project. For cost reasons, the Community Center board decided at the time against a pool, but that the idea came up at all underscored that there was at least some element of interest among the public, despite the proliferation of private pools in the area since the mid-‘50s. Thus one can imagine that after the Community Center opened in 1966, a recreation department with full-time staff and cognizant of some level of demand in town might view a municipal pool as its next big achievement and begin to lay plans accordingly.2

Late 1960s: The Effort Gets Serious

Whatever the case may be, by 1968 Vienna’s Town Council was interested in how much the public might want a pool. In August, the Council commissioned a survey of the community. The councilman who prompted the vote commented that the survey “would commit us to absolutely nothing.”3

The survey showed strong support for the pool, which presumably encouraged the Council in 1969 to try to get some sort of pool in place for the summer. In April, the Town’s Municipal Swimming Pool Committee lobbied the Fairfax County School Board to build an all-year, indoor pool next to the gym at Madison High School. The Town would help to pay for construction, drawing on funds included in the most recent bond issue. When the school board delayed a decision to the fall, the Town announced in June that “[t]his means there will be no pool this summer.” 4

In fact, to cover the summer swimming season, Vienna officials in mid-1969 looked for temporary alternatives to a Madison High pool. The Town studied the possibility of busing children to the Bull Run Regional Park, which was about to open its new pool. In mid-June, the Council voted to buy a 20ft x 30ft portable pool for $5,000. The Town intended to draw from its contingency fund rather than bond money. The preference was to install the portable pool at the Community Center. However, Fairfax County’s health department killed the idea because the county’s regulations for commercial pools prohibited plastic liners and required nearby bath facilities. Thus for its temporary expedient the Town in July began busing children 13 years and older to the pool at Bull Run Park two afternoons each week for 40 cents per ticket.5

By late 1969, the Town was done with temporary measures. The county’s school board had put off the Madison pool issue again, this time until spring or summer 1970, because of a crisis in funding school construction. Inflation and a debate in Congress over tax-free municipal bonds meant that such bonds needed a higher rate to be marketable. Virginia law, however, would not allow municipalities to pay more than six percent interest, too low for the market. Thus with this latest delay in the Madison High pool project, the Vienna Town Council in November 1969 approved the architectural plans for an indoor pool to be built next to the Community Center. Already-approved general revenue bonds would pay for the pool. The Town hoped to award the contract in late February or early March 1970 with construction slated to be complete in May.  The project would include both a half-Olympics-sized pool and a wading pool as well as a dressing room and patio.6 

1970: Optimism, Delay

The new year started on a note of optimism, and during the course of the 1970 Vienna made tangible progress on a pool, but nailing down the site encountered delays. In a letter to the Town’s citizens in January 1970, Vienna Mayor James Martinelli wrote, “Many of the actions taken in 1969 will come to fruition in 1970. We expect our new Municipal pool to be completed at the Community Center this summer.” In May, the Town announced that it was approving the final plans for the pool. In June, the Town Council included a $15,000 operating fund for the pool in its $2 million budget for the coming fiscal year. Of course, by May and June of 1970, the pool was supposed to be built, according to the plan from the previous fall. In May, however, the Town announced a delay in the facility’s opening, now estimated for the fall of 1970. Vienna officials were finding it was requiring more time than they expected to acquire the undeveloped right-of-way of Mill Street SE that abutted the Community Center and was the planned location for the pool. The Town intended to hold a public hearing to vacate the strip. In August, the Town announced in reference to the Mill Street strip that “[t]he acquisition of a small piece of land necessary to the construction of the pool has encountered unexpected difficulties, causing further construction delays. The pool may have to be relocated.”7

In late 1970, the Town prepared for just such a relocation. Town officials went to the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) and sought a use permit to build the pool on the Bowman lot, kitty-corner from Vienna Elementary School. (In mid-1970, the Town had purchased the Bowman property at the southwest corner of Center and Locust streets.) The BZA slated a public hearing on Vienna’s permit request for October. As of December, however, the Town was still awaiting a decision from the BZA. In the meantime, the Town Council publicly noted that if the Community Center or Bowman tract did not work out for the pool, then they might look to build the facility elsewhere in Vienna.8

In 1970, an unbuilt portion of Mill Street SE (red) remained designated adjacent to the Community Center (green). The Town needed to have the right-of-way vacated so it could build the pool at the Community Center. The Bowman lot was nearby (blue) and considered as an alternative site. (Base map is from the Fairfax County Digital Map Viewer, tax map grid square 38-4).

In the midst of the uncertainty, fund-raising continued. In October, the Community Center held its annual antiques show. The proceeds from the sale of antiques were to help fund the construction of the pool, according to the Washington Post.9

1971: Weeks From Construction, A Fatal Surprise

The location was settled by mid-1971, judging from the imminence of construction at that time. The site was to be the location next to the Community Center, according to a later account in the Washington Post. This is consistent with a change in Fairfax County property maps. The county’s 1971 map indicates that the relevant portion of Mill Street SE had been vacated since the 1970 edition. 10  

A portion of Mill Street SE is gone (red arrows) on the county’s 1971 property map, a change since 1970. (The base map is from the county’s Digital Map Viewer, from tax map grid square 38-4).
This aerial photo from 1972 shows the vacated stretch of Mill Street SE next to the Community Center and the Bowman lot to orient you to the two locations considered in 1970 for the Vienna pool. The base image is from the Fairfax County Historical Imagery Viewer. The faint yellow lines show today’s parcel boundaries.
This aerial image shows that in 2025, the footprint for the Vienna Community Center had grown to be a good deal larger than in the 1972 photo above. The photo also shows that portions of the post-1972 additions (blue circles) to the facility were placed on the former Mill Street strip (red arrows), underscoring why Town officials wanted to vacate the Mill Street right-of-way when they were planning to build a pool next to the Community Center. (Base image from the Fairfax County Historical Imagery Viewer).

Thus as of mid-1971, the Town seemed weeks away from beginning construction. In its June communication to citizens, Vienna explained that it planned to let bids for the pool midmonth and expected construction to begin in mid-July.11

At this point, the complication arose which became fatal to the pool project. All of the bids ended up well above the $150,000 in bond money which the Town had set aside to cover the estimated cost of the pool facilities. Even the lowest bid was $70,000, or 47 percent, above the anticipated $150,000, according to the Town. (A subsequent newspaper article cited a figure of $100,000 above the Council’s estimate). By early July, the Town Council called a pause in the form of a 30-day extension on accepting a bid. The Council wanted the time to mull over how and if it should pay for the greater-than-expected expense. The Town’s longtime Public Information Officer later recounted that “Mayor Joe Spriggs favored proceeding, using funds already available for acquisition and development of park land….But the other Council members voted to reconsider.”12

After deliberating, the Town decided to go to the voters. In early August 1971, the Town Council unanimously rejected the bids because they were so much higher than it estimated. A public hearing in late July had unsettled council members, according to a local newspaper account, with half the citizen speakers at the hearing opposed, half in favor. Meanwhile, Vienna’s Town Manager had memo’ed to the Council, “I do not feel that a quarter of a million dollars should be committed to an enclosed pool at this time. I simply feel that the money can be spent for many other programs and projects.” In his account to the Council of what had turned out to be an inaccurate estimate, the Town Manager explained that the Town’s architects had estimated an Olympic-size 25 meter pool would cost $65,000. “[B]ath, showers, dressing facilities, the necessary location storm drainage and the addition of a children’s pool would probably raise the total to $100,000.” Enclosing it had been expected to add another $40,000, according to the estimate. With all this, two council members proposed that the issue go on the ballot in November as a non-binding “advisory referendum,” after which council members could factor public opinion into their deliberations. The delay would also give the Town Manager an opportunity to revisit with the Fairfax County School Board the idea of a joint venture for a pool at James Madison High School, with a goal of letting bids over the 1971-72 winter. Moreover, by November the Council might also know if the County would plan to build a pool near Vienna in what would become Nottaway Park, as had been under consideration but was not finalized. The Council elaborated on this issue at a subsequent meeting in August, noting that they did not want to duplicate a Fairfax County effort.13

Even going to the voters became complicated. The Town Council wanted the Town Attorney to petition the Fairfax County Circuit Court to allow the pool on the general election ballot. However, the attorney advised that he had not heard of “an advisory referendum” and thus was not sure if the court would authorize it. The Council’s back-up plan was to send a questionnaire to residents in the Town newsletter. The questionnaire would include alternatives to the all-year, indoor pool: a summer-only pool, an outdoor pool, or a county pool. The Town intended to include in its pre-election newsletter cost estimates for an indoor and outdoor pool as well as pool specifications.14

The Town’s informational newsletter went out in the run-up to the referendum. One gets the sense from the newsletter that the Town Council had turned against the pool. The newsletter informed residents that the ballot would ask them if they wanted Vienna to build a year-round municipal swimming pool for an approximate cost of $250,000.  The newsletter then explained how the bids received by the Town had come in much higher than planned, which had made the Council “very reluctant to move ahead with the construction of the pool at the much higher figure.” The subsequent text seems to take pains to reassure readers that it would be okay to vote “No”:

“Accordingly, Vienna citizens are being requested to survey the needs of the community and determine whether or not the $250,000 could be better spent on other recreational and community needs. A negative result on the referendum will not necessarily mean the end of a public pool in Vienna.” The Town newsletter then followed with a discussion of the “possibility though not in the immediate future” of a pool at James Madison High School or at the county’s planned Nottaway Park, the latter pool depending on the approval of a county bond issue.15

The vote in November 1971 went 2 to 1 against the pool: 1773 votes opposing, 804 in favor. “Swimming Pool Issue Dies,” announced the Town of Vienna newsletter for December 1971. It added with a note of finality, “Council ruled that the issue would not be brought up again.”16

Conclusion: Failure Resulted from an Outdated Cost Estimate in an Inflationary Era

In the early 1950s, the first effort to build a Vienna municipal pool died in the face of opposition from property owners near the site of the proposed facility. For the second effort, from 1966 to 1971, poor planning appears instrumental in the failure. According to the Town of Vienna’s newsletter for November 1971, the “pool was originally planned approximately five years ago at an estimated cost of $150,000” (author’s emphasis). Thus the final plans in 1971 to build a pool apparently relied on a circa 1966 cost estimate; the expectation for construction bids sought in 1971 was in relation to a cost estimate from some five years earlier.17 

That five years, however, featured the onset of the inflation crisis that beset the United States until the early 1980s. With the Vietnam war and the Great Society, Lyndon Johnson pursued a policy of both guns and butter, but he delayed seeking higher taxes to pay for both because he feared a tax hike would provoke Congress to cut social spending. Consequently, “[b]y 1966, inflation had risen to 3.5 percent, which—by the standards of the 1950s—was high,” writes economics columnist Robert Samuelson. By the first two years of the Nixon administration, 1969 and 1970, inflation was hitting 6.2 percent and 5.6 percent, respectively. These figures are for the Consumer Price Index, however. Inflation in the construction industry was worse; in 1971 alone it approached 12 percent.18

Further working against the pool was the timing of the bid problem and the related revelation that the Town’s cost estimate was much too low. Just weeks later, on 15 August 1971, came a dramatic development in the inflation crisis. President Nixon made a surprise announcement of sweeping economic measures that included a freeze on wages and prices.  Although the controls were a popular move at the time, it would have been reasonable for council members and members of the public to react by worrying about economic uncertainty and hesitating to take on the obligation of a public pool. The announced freeze, after all, was for 90 days: what would happen to wages and prices after that?

Epilogue

Whereas the issue of a Vienna municipal pool was dead—or in hindsight, comatose—the issue of a nearby county pool remained alive for the Town Council in the early 1970s. In 1973, the council tapped the mayor to remind the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors of Vienna’s interest in a pool for Nottoway Park in either of the first two phases of the park’s construction. In early 1974, the Council provided its approval for Phase I of Nottoway Park while registering disappointment that the county had not committed to a pool for the facility. Midyear, the Council again authorized a communication from the mayor to the supervisors that Fairfax County should include a pool at Nottoway Park. The Council acknowledged ongoing discussions that pools might be a future feature for local high schools, but argued that instead a pool at Nottoway could be shared by both Madison and Oakton High Schools, as it would be roughly midway between them. A pool at Nottoway would be best for Vienna, “where it has been planned and promised for nearly two years,” the Council pointedly noted.19

By 1975, the issue seemed to be closed. When the Town Council deliberated over advising the Fairfax County Park Authority (FCPA) of Vienna’s opposition to a $2.2 million ice rink, the Council noted that the Authority had failed after all to find funds to build a pool at Nottoway. The Council’s formal advice to FCPA was that it should instead consider enterprises like a public swimming pool that were not typically commercial establishments and not already in the county, painting an implicit contrast with an ice rink.20

Over the next several years, Vienna sometimes tracked public attitudes toward a pool. For instance, in the Town Survey for 1976, 26 percent of the respondents recorded an interest in a public pool, just below interest in additional tennis courts. Circa 1980, the two reversed places. “Many citizens (45%) feel a need for more recreational facilities, particularly a pool followed by tennis courts….”21

Perhaps I am not finding subsequent Vienna-pool references in online records for the ensuing 30 years because in 1988 Fairfax County opened indoor pools at its Spring Hill and Oak Marr Recreation Centers. Those may have absorbed public demand or the interest of local government officials for the time being and perhaps until the 2010s, which then featured at least a couple references to the pool issue. As part of discussions in 2012 about expanding the Community Center, the head of Vienna’s parks and rec department reported to the Town Council that “some citizens are looking for more variety and more opportunities for recreation within the Town of Vienna, and suggestions include gymnasium space, a pool, a fitness center….,” etc. In a 2019 survey on Community Priorities looking 3 -5 years out, building a community swimming pool was registered at 46 percent support. This was above a splash pad at the Town Green but below public parking in commercial districts, business-friendly town policies and practices, enhancements to economic development strategies, and public art.22

In mid-2020, the Town of Vienna acquired the Faith Baptist Church property on Center Street, setting the stage for the deliberations that were underway by 2023 for the latest effort to build a Vienna municipal pool [https://patch.com/virginia/vienna/vienna-church-property-sold-town-government]. With that, the issues moves to Current Affairs, and this history ends….

  1. “Two Referenda On Ballot Affect Vienna Residents,” Town of Vienna Newsletter, Vol. 11-71, November 1971. Kisner, Marie, “Vienna Stories, 1950-2000” 2019, p181. ↩︎
  2. “Expanded Recreation Department,” Town of Vienna Newsletter, Vol. 66-1, January 1966. “The Community Center, Town of Vienna Newsletter, Vol. 66-2, April 1966. “Community Center Another Vienna ‘First’,” Fairfax Falls Church Sun Echo, 24 June 1965, p9. “Vienna Community Center Seeks Site,” Northern Virginia Sun, 16 May 1962, p19. ↩︎
  3. “Vienna to Survey Citizens on Pool,” Northern Virginia Sun, 20 August 1968, p9. ↩︎
  4. Kisner, p181. “Progress Report: Swimming Pool,” Town of Vienna Newsletter, Vol. 69-5, May 1969. McGinty, Marilyn, “Tax Rebate Study Pressed by Vienna,” Northern Virginia Sun, 16 June 1969, p2. “Progress Report: Swimming Pool,” Town of Vienna Newsletter, Vol. 69-6, June 1969. ↩︎
  5. “Progress Report: Swimming Pool,” Town of Vienna Newsletter, Vol. 69-6, June 1969. “Tax Rebate Study Pressed by Vienna,” Northern Virginia Sun, 16 June 1969, p2. “Hopes For A Pool This Summer Fade,” Town of Vienna Newsletter, Vol. 69-7, July 1969. “Pool Plan Offered By Vienna, Northern Virginia Sun, 21 July 1969, p5. ↩︎
  6. McGinty, Marilyn, “Vienna Will Build Swimming Pool,” Northern Virginia Sun, 4 November 1969, p1. “This Month in History,” Town of Vienna Newsletter, May 2000. ↩︎
  7. Martinelli, James, Town of Vienna Newsletter, January 1970. “This Month in History,” Town of Vienna Newsletter, May 2000. “Vienna’s Budget Is Approved,” Northern Virgina Sun, 23 June 1970, p1 & p2. ↩︎
  8. Fairfax County Deed 3321:89. “Progress Report: Swimming Pool,” Town of Vienna Newsletter, October 1970. “Progress Report: Swimming Pool,” Town of Vienna Newsletter, December 1970. ↩︎
  9. “Show and Sale,” Washington Post, 27 September 1970, pL4. ↩︎
  10. “Swimming Pool Referendum on Vienna Ballot,” Washington Post, 31 October 1971, pE5. Fairfax County property maps for tax grid 38-4, 1970 and 1971, via the Fairfax County Digital Map Viewer. ↩︎
  11. “Progress Report: Swimming Pool And Library,” Town of Vienna Newsletter, Vol. 6-71, June 1971. ↩︎
  12. “Progress Report: Swimming Pool,” Town of Vienna Newsletter, Vol. 7-71, July 1971. Ganschinietz, Linda, “Swimming Pool Bids High, Town Seeks Referendum,” Northern Virginia Sun, 3 August 1971, p1. Kisner, p181.
    ↩︎
  13. Ganschinietz, Linda, “Swimming Pool Bids High, Town Seeks Referendum,” Northern Virginia Sun, 3 August 1971, p1. Ganschinietz, Linda, “Petition Seeks Pool Ballot, Northern Virginia Sun, 17 August 1971, p1. ↩︎
  14. Ganschinietz, Linda, “Petition Seeks Pool Ballot, Northern Virginia Sun, 17 August 1971, p1. Ganschinietz, Linda, “Swimming Pool Bids High, Town Seeks Referendum,” Northern Virginia Sun, 3 August 1971, p1. ↩︎
  15. “Two Referenda On Ballot Affect Vienna Residents,” Town of Vienna Newsletter, Vol. 11-71, November 1971.  ↩︎
  16. “Water, Sewer Bonds Pass,” Northern Virginia Sun, 6 November 1971, p2. “Swimming Pool Issue Dies,” Town of Vienna Newsletter, Vol 12-71, December 1971. ↩︎
  17. “Two Referenda On Ballot Affect Vienna Residents,” Town of Vienna Newsletter, Vol. 11-71, November 1971. ↩︎
  18. Samuelson, Robert J. “The Great Inflation and Its Aftermath: The Past and Future of American Affluence,” Random House, New York, 2008, p64 and p67. “Van Hebert, Duane, Memo “Re: Historical Construction Inflation Costs,“Iowa City Community School District, 17 November 2017. Inflation data for the construction industry is from RSMeans, “considered by many to be the world’s leading provider of construction cost data, software, and services for all phases of the construction lifecycle.” Nixon, Richard, “Statement About Combatting Inflation in the Construction Industry and Meeting Future Construction Needs,” 17 March 1970, The American Presidency Project, UC Santa Barbara. ↩︎
  19. Minutes, Regular Council Meeting, Town of Vienna, 22 January 1973. “Pennino Proposal Support,” Northern Virginia Sun, 25 January 1974, p9. Minutes, Regular Council Meeting, Town of Vienna, 22 July 1974, p6. ↩︎
  20. Minutes, Regular Council Meeting, Town of Vienna, 3 November 1975, p6. ↩︎
  21. “Town Survey Finds Services Rated Well,” Town of Vienna Newsletter, Vol LXXXVI, No. 13, November 1976. “Survey Shows Satisfaction With Town Services, Facilities,” Town of Vienna Newsletter, April 1980. ↩︎
  22. Minutes, Vienna Town Council Work Session, 13 February 2012. Vienna Voice, Town of Vienna, February 2019, p3. ↩︎

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