Historical Society of Greater
Lansing Annual Meeting
Thursday, June 12, 2014 -
5:00pm
Potluck-Style Picnic
The Historical Society of
Greater Lansing will hold its annual meeting 5:30 p.m., Thursday June 12 at the
pavilion in Moores Park just off W. Barnes Ave. Accompanying the meeting will
be a potluck style picnic with hotdogs and drinks provided by the Society. The
event is free and the public is invited, but are encouraged to bring a dish to
pass.
A special feature of the
meeting will be a presentation by Tegan D’Arcangelis Baiocchi, an architectural
historian, on the history and architecture of the Moores Park Pool. The pool
was designed by Wesley Bintz who was Lansing’s city engineer in the 1920s. The
pool program is part of the Society’s “Made in Lansing” exhibit and celebration
which is highlighting 125 products made in the city over 125 years. “Made in Lansing”
exhibits are in the atrium of Lansing City Hall and at the R.E. Olds
Transportation Museum and are open through October.
The design of a “Bintz” pool
was so successful that the Bintz left his city position and patented the
construction technique which was used to construct more than 100 pools
nationwide. The Lansing pool which will open this next week is the oldest Bintz
pool still standing after his first pool in Flint was destroyed.
The ”Bintz” pool was popular
with cities due to its lower construction costs since it was above ground with
the changing areas housed underneath the pool.
Valerie Marvin, president of
the Historical Society said, “Lansing’s burgeoning population in the 1920s
meant that local neighborhoods were bursting at the seams with families that
moved here to work in the auto industry and as social restraints relaxed in the
1920s pools became popular recreational sites where both children, and
sometimes adults, could go to cool off on steamy summer days.”
She said pools, like movie
theatres, which were often the first air-conditioned buildings in most cities,
offered a place to socialize while escaping the city's oppressive summer heat.
“Company owners may have gone
“up north” to escape the heat of the summer, but the working man didn't have
this option; instead, after a long day at the shop, his escape could come in
the form of a quick dip in the local pool.” Marvin said.
Some pools even had separate
hours for children during the day, and for adults in the evening, she said.
Baiocchi, who works for a Fort
Wayne Indiana consulting firm, is a graduate of Eastern Michigan University’s
Master of Science Historic Preservation Program. The historian first became
interested in Bintz Pools when she completed a project in Flint, Michigan where
Bintz built his first pool. She said
tracking Bintz Pools has “sort of become a hobby” and she has identified 63
pools of the 135 that are said to be of his design.
Moores Park Pool was built in
1922 and was named for the Lansing developer J.H. Moores. It is on the U.S.
Department of Interior’s National Register of Historic Places.
Special thanks to the Michigan Humanities Council for a quick grant to fund this event!
