THE SPAULDING SWIMMING POOL

The completion and opening of the Spaulding Swimming Pool, December 15,. marked the realization of a dream that Dartmouth men have cherished for years. The gift to Dartmouth by Rolland Harty Spaulding of Rochester, N.H., former governor of the state, represents an expenditure of close to $130,000 and will be a lasting memorial to Mr. Spaulding's generosity and his friendship to the College. In connection with it there was also opened the Stanley Hill Memorial Shower Room, the gift of Stanley Hill '18, one of the ninety Dartmouth men killed in the Great War.

The dedication exercises were brief but impressive. President Hopkins spoke in behalf of Mr. Spaulding and read a telegram from Willard C. Hill, father of Stanley, and in a short speech to the undergraduates voiced the deep appreciation that the College and every Dartmouth man has for these gifts and for the spirit of them. He also stated the indebtedness of all concerned to the Business Director, Mr. Homer E. Keyes, whose original conception and artistic genius had so largely amplified the conventional plans for such a structure and had given it so much of distinction. Sidney C. Hazelton '09, coach of the swimming team and Assistant Professor of Physical Education spoke of the value of the pool as a part of the College's athletic equipment, especially indicating its importance in the system of compulsory recreational athletics now in force. After these brief speeches and a short exhibition by several swimmers, the students filed from the pool through the Hill Memorial Shower Room, baring their heads as they passed the bronze tablet commemorating the death of its donor.

According to architectural and engineering experts who have inspected the completed work, the Spaulding Swimming Pool, embodies the best modern ideas in pool construction.

It is housed in an entirely new building of brick, steel, and granite, designed by Charles A. Rich of New York, who has designed most of the buildings erected at Dartmouth for the past quarter of a century, and constitutes an addition one hundred feet by seventy feet south from the east wing of Alumni Gymnasium. The room in which the pool is sunk is ninety-eight feet long by fifty-three feet wide with an arched ceiling thirty feet above the surface of the water. This provides a lofty, airy enclosure which avoids surplus humidity.

For the accommodation of visitors and to obviate any possible contamination of the water from overhanging balconies, a specially built gallery recess rises in a series of tiers well back from the pool room floor but giving an unobstructed view of the pool itself. This will seat about one hundred and fifty persons which is an unusual capacity for pools not especially constructed for public exhibitions. Access to the gallery is obtained directly from the upper floor of the gymnasium through a balcony which will seat an additional number of people. The whole seating space is unobstructed by any columns and is constructed throughout of monolithic concrete with a white cement finish. The pool room is also connected with the main locker room of the gymnasium through the Hill Memorial Shower Room.

The heating and ventilating system is elaborate and insures a consant circulation of dry air in the room. The radiation system is concealed, heat being admitted to the room through tile and bronze grills set near the floor and in the window ledges, and all metal work which might offer surface for condensation and accumulation of rust has been omitted. An interesting feature of the construction is an underground pipe gallery all around the pool, a device which will help insure an equable temperature at all seasons and will make every part of the apparatus immediately accessible.

The pool itself is seventy feet long by thirty feet wide and varies in depth from four to nine feet. A depth of at least six feet is maintained for sixty feet of its length thus providing a perfect field for water polo. The nine foot depth permits diving with perfect safety.

In its decorative features the Spaulding Pool is unique, especial attention having been paid to the tiling, designed by Homer E. Keyes, which is called the most beautiful ever installed in any similar building and which reflects-the care and attention given by Mr. Keyes to the whole project. The cost of the tiling was approximately $40,000. The pool itself is lined with mottled green ceramic tile which gives the water a greenish tinge, while the racing lines and numerals showing distances are of a contrasting brown shade, and the ladders are of tile integral with the body of the pool. The parapet about the pool is of Ohio Flint tile heavily bordered with faience tile in rich colorings of green and peacock blue relieved with dull red and orange tones. The wall panelling of the room is likewise faience in an orange color harmonizing with the rest and carried to a height of nine feet. This is bordered by a tile of contrasting color, the border at the top enclosing a hand-hewn panel design of dolphins. At one end of the pool a panel bears in gilt the modest inscription:

THE SPAULDING SWIMMING POOL GIFT OF ROLLAND HARTY SPAULDING 1919

The system of purification and sterilization of the water in the Spaulding Pool is complete in every detail. It is compared to a municipal water plant. Filtration through sand beds is' the first step in the process after the heating of the water. Alum, introduced as a coagulent, serves to draw together bodies in suspension in the water so that these may more readily be eliminated by the filter. Following the filtration the water is sterilized by a solution of liquid chlorine introduced into the main from a solution chamber. From the pool the water returns to a recirculation pump and is heated, filtered, and sterilized again before returning to the pool. This recirculation process is constant and by it the water in the pool is completely changed and sterilized twice in every twenty four hours. The whole system was designed and installed by M. F. Hasbrouck of New York, a swimming pool engineer who planned the pool and its equipment.

In addition to such purification the water entering the pool is aerated and thus kept fresh, alive, and active by being run in from above the gutter instead of from a point near the bottom of the pool.

Designed for use in connection with the Spaulding Pool is a beautiful domed shower bath room finished in faience tile with Chinese faience borders around panels of verdt green marble. This is an addition to the gymnasium equipment which has been long desired and is the gift of and memorial to Stanley Hill of Lexington, Mass., a member of the class of 1918 at Dartmouth and one of the ninety men of the College killed in action in the World War. A bronze tablet set in the buff tiled wall dedicates this room "to the brave and clean young manhood of his beloved Dartmouth."

Hon. Rolland Harty Spaulding of Rochester, N. H., who gave the Spaulding Swimming Pool to Dartmouth College is one of the most popular and prominent business men of New England. He was born at Townsend Harbor, Mass., in 1873, and after graduation from Phillips Andover Academy, Andover,. Mass., in 1893 entered business and has since continued in the firm established by his father, now Jonas Spaulding Sons Co., manufacturers of leather-board, counters, novelties, etc., at Townsend Harbor, Mass., Rochester, North" Rochester, and Milton, N. H., and Tonawanda, N. Y. He is a director of Spaulding & Sons, Ltd., of-London, England, the International Leather Co., and the Atlas Leather Co. He was governor of the state of New Hampshire 1915-16 and has served the state on many important boards and commissions.

Mr. Spaulding's gift to Dartmouth is characteristic of the public-spirited generosity and active interest in all things for the good of the people that have brought him the respect and high esteem of New Hampshire and of all New England.