Merrick's Venetian Pool

The rocks used to build the Merrick Homestead, the namesake "Coral Gables", were quarried at a site nearby the house. In fact many of the houses in the surrounding neighborhood developed by George Merrick were built with rock from the same quarry. Ever the promoter, Merrick saw an opportunity in this hole in the ground, and he solicited his uncle, artist Denman Fink (creator of several New Deal murals including the one in the Lake Wales Post Office) and architect Phineas Paist (architect of Coral Gables City Hall) to create something grand. The result was the Venetian Pool.

Construction of the pool

Construction began in 1924 and it wasn't long before Merrick was using the amenity to attract newcomers to Coral Gables. William Jennings Bryan gave speeches near the pool's edge and swimmers-turned-actors Esther Williams and Johnny Weismuller took laps in the pool's spring-fed waters. Contestants in beauty pageants paraded competed poolside and full orchestras created ambiance to help sell Merrick's new community.

William Jennings Bryan

Images from the State Archives of Florida

On my recent visit to the pool, now on the National Register of Historic Places, it was undergoing repairs so I was unable to venture inside. From the outside I could imagine the energy and the spectacle as northerners found poolside paradise in the heart of the South Florida wilderness. Today it is a well-used facility run by the City of Coral Gables with over 100,000 visitors a year. And, according to the website, the water is still spring fed, pumped up from the aquifer every night for lucky folks to swim in the next day.

New Deal Discovery

Today is my birthday, and my gift from my wife was a day trip. Lucky for me it was a good day of roadside exploration and I have enough material to fill a couple blogs. We drove through Kissimmee into Polk County and then explored the small town of Lake Worth, Florida. While walking around Lake Worth's cute historic downtown, I noticed the distinct Art Deco-like appearance of a vintage post office and dawned on me that there might be a New Deal mural inside. And as luck would have it there was.

"Harvest Time- Lake Wales, was painted in 1942 by Denman Fink, probably part of the Section of Fine Arts through the Treasury Department. In addition to painting other New Deal era murals in Miami, Mr. Fink was instrumental in the creation of the city of Coral Gables, Florida with his nephew George Merrick. He also reportedly designed the city gates to Coral Gables and the Venetian Pool, which is on the National Historic Register.

The Ventian Pools are closed until April, but it is at the top of the list for a 2009 roadtrip.