Sixty-five years ago Annabelle Sweeney and Virginia Jacoby were dubbed the “Whealan Pool Mermaids” when their swimsuit-clad bodies appeared in a newspaper announcing the pool’s grand opening.
The mermaids returned– though not as scantily dressed– for Wednesday’s grand reopening of the Northwest Side pool. More than 60 dignitaries and about 100 children celebrated the rebirth of the pool, closed in 1995 when Cook County Forest Preserve District officials declared it unsafe.
With their husbands in tow and the old newspaper clipping in hand, the two mermaids shook hands with county officials, posed for pictures and offered a host of memories.
“Boy, 65 years ago we never got this much attention,” joked Annabelle (Sweeney) Gaertner, 79, as a group of ’90s-style sea goddesses gathered around her for a photo. “We’re like celebrities. . . . A lot can change in 65 years.”
Whealan Pool, at Milwaukee and Devon Avenues, has witnessed a few changes of its own thanks to a $4 million face lift.
For starters, gone is the no-nonsense “Whealan Pool” moniker. The facility now will be called “Whealan Aquatic Center.”
When it was built in 1932, the pool was shaped like a cross and featured one high dive and a few lanes for swimming laps.
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Today the semicircular pool offers two water slides, a six-lane lap area and a jungle gym that blasts water from cannons, bubble jets and waterfalls.
The aquatic center also sports a separate play area for younger children and a new concession stand. The decades-old bath house also received a makeover.
Despite the pool’s ’90s look, Gaertner and Virginia (Jacoby) Ekman didn’t feel like mermaids out of water when they dipped their fingers into the pool Wednesday.
“Sometimes progress is bad, but this pool is just lovely and much better than our old one,” said Ekman, 79. “All we did was sunbathe and swim. Now there’s so much more for the children.”
The Whealan Pool of Ekman’s day was quite a sight. It attracted teenagers from all over the county, who–as Harold Ekman put it–“came here to be seen.”
“We met friends here, made new friends. And, of course, we liked to look at the girls,” he recalled with a chuckle.
Back then, Ekman said, swimmers paid 25 cents for a wire basket to put their clothes in. After the swimmers showered in their swimsuits, health officials made sure there were no open wounds. Finally, swimmers stepped into a steel bucket to sanitize their feet before heading to the pool.
The pool remained a huge draw for decades. But, by the 1990s, it had fallen into disrepair. Officials closed it in June 1995.
“We believe this facility will improve the quality of life for young people and their families for a long time to come,” County Board President John Stroger said.
Not just young people–grandmas too, say the original Whealan Pool Mermaids.
“We’re going down the water slide tomorrow,” Gaertner said.