On Sept. 7, 1891, the Idaho Statesman told its readers, “It is confidently expected that a contract will shortly be let for the construction of the great natatorium building on Warm Springs Avenue. The foundation walls are all laid, the mammoth plunge complete, and the tall rock grotto at the south end was finished Saturday. The shingles and other materials are already on the ground and the work of construction will occupy about four months.”
Architect John C. Paulsen and contractor Daniel P. Wortman, both of Helena, Mont., arrived in Boise on Sept. 11, and construction began later that month. The roof of the giant structure was supported by 13 wooden arches, each with a span of 80 feet. They were built lying flat on the ground and then raised into place — a procedure that turned into an adventure with the first one to go up on Sept. 23:
“The men were all afternoon about it. Being very heavy, weighing 7,500 pounds and the wind blowing strong at the time, it fell against the rock pile over which the water is made to fall and was broken in two at the very top of the arch. It was soon mended, but it was 7 o’clock in the evening before it was gotten into place.”
When the 11th arch went up on Oct. 4, the Statesman reported, “An idea of the size of the building may now be formed. Many persons are now going out on the cars having no other object but to take a view of the improvements now going on in that suburb.”
There was much to be seen along the Avenue besides the “Nat,” (as it was soon called by all). Riding the new streetcars was still a novelty, and several new houses were under construction.
When the framing for the tall twin towers at the north end of the Nat was raised the Statesman reported, “The crowd of people at the Natatorium on Sunday afternoon was immense.”
On Oct. 14, 1891, the paper listed the facilities that would be available to patrons of the Nat when it opened to the public: “plunge, ladies parlor, general reception room, wine and smoking rooms for gentlemen, office for getting keys to dressing rooms and bathing suits, tank, grotto with waterfalls, vapor and Turkish baths, central hall, billiard room, card room, reading room, parlor, dining room, kitchen, servants’ rooms, dancing pavilion, galleries on four floors overlooking plunge.”
In November, when the painting contractors had finished their work, and the two six-story towers had been finished, the Statesman reported that it “showed up finely” and that “it probably covers more ground than any other building in the state.”
On Nov. 12, 1891: “Yesterday the Natatorium management contracted with the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company for $4,000 worth of furniture and billiard tables. …The furniture will be placed upon the cars at Chicago January 20th, and will arrive here during February.”
In January, in a story about the construction of the Boise Natatorium in the Daily Herald of Helena, called Boise City “a garden spot of Idaho. … The water supply is so abundant and the temperature so high that its uses are being applied for heating as well as bathing purposes. The water for bathing is reservoired and thus cooled to the required temperature, and its medicinal properties are kept intact by preventing the intermixture of any other water flow. Boise is a beautiful town, prosperous and progressive.”
On April 20, 1892, the Statesman reported that “the Natatorium will be formally opened on Sunday, May 15th. The directors of the resort have not decided whether or not to have a house warming. They evidently believe in being prepared, however, for yesterday they took out a liquor license. On Wednesday evening the huge structure was for the first time illuminated. The effect was strikingly beautiful.”
At a meeting of the YMCA, reported in the Statesman on May 11, a petition was circulated opposing the Natatorium being open on Sundays.
A speaker stirred the crowd by declaring, “The directors call the place a Natatorium; but I call it a big saloon with a little pool thrown in.”
More on Boise’s great Natatorium next week.
Arthur Hart writes this column on Idaho history for the Idaho Statesman each Sunday. E-mail histnart@mindspring.com.
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