Glen Springs
| Glen Springs | |
|---|---|
head spring
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| Type | Former Recreation Area |
| Location | Gainesville, Florida |
| Coordinates | 29°40′27″N 82°20′50″W / 29.674167°N 82.347222°WCoordinates: 29°40′27″N 82°20′50″W / 29.674167°N 82.347222°W |
| Area | 3.79 acres (1.53 ha) |
| Created | 1924-1926; 1940 |
| Designer | Guy Fulton |
| Owned by | Elks Club of Gainesville |
| Open | yearly fishing derby |
| Status | closed |
Glen Springs is a 5th magnitude hydrological spring in Gainesville, Florida, United States located at 2424 NW 23rd Boulevard. For a time, it was the best place to swim and picnic in Gainesville, popular for more than four decades as a favorite recreation area. The property closed to the public in 1970, and after 40+ years, most residents are unaware that there is a spring-fed pool within their city limits.
Since Gainesville was settled in 1854, locals have known about and flocked to the ravine with a beautiful spring and trees surrounding it. Outflow from the spring becomes the 500-foot Glen Spring Run, which joins Hogtown Creek. Measurements between 1941 and 1972 reported flows which varied between 26,000 and 36,000 gallons per day, according to Florida Geological Survey Bulletin 66. The most recent test in 2010 showed daily flow at just 6,000 GPD.
The surrounding property and spring were purchased by Gainesville businessman Cicero Addison Pound Sr. in 1924. Architect Guy Fulton designed the first pool and springhouse which was built soon after. The swimming team from the University of Florida even practiced there around 1929 before the University pool was constructed in 1930. At that time, Northwest 23rd Boulevard was known as Glen Springs Road. Pound's son stated that Glen Springs was the “only (public) place to swim near Gainesville” until the pool at Westside Park was completed in 1966. Glen Springs was, however, a segregated swimming area, open only to whites.
Fulton's design expanded the facility to three pools in 1940. The first pool contained the spring itself and was 18' x 10' and mostly 8 feet deep; the middle pool was 170' x 25' and 3 feet deep; the last pool was 140' x 25' and 8 feet deep. Total volume was more than 300,000 gallons. It included 1 meter and 3 meter springboards. The pool's drain is on the bottom beneath the 3 meter concrete platform, where water flows through a discharge pipe and creates the Glen Springs Run.
The springhouse included two levels: the ground floor contained locker rooms and showers, while the upper level held a hardwood dance floor, jukebox and concession stand. Roy Perkins, who ran the facility for twenty years, called it "the largest baby-sitting agency in Gainesville." The pool was cleaned weekly by diverting the water to a bypass canal, which allowed the pools to drain, then lifeguards would scrub the walls and bottom with brooms. Flow was returned to the pool and it refilled.
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Wikipedia