The pool leads a second life as a high school venue. The Lincoln High School boys' and girls' swim and dive teams practice and compete here during their seasons, so plan on seeing team activity at certain times of the year.
Session times, lesson registration and fees shift from season to season. Before you head over, check with Seattle Parks and Recreation for the current schedule and today's hours.
What you will find in the water
- A 75 by 43 foot pool that slopes from 3 feet deep at the south end to 12 feet at the north end
- Diving platforms at one meter and three meters (about 3 and 10 feet)
- A rope swing hung from a beam above the deep end
- Starting blocks for racing
- A pool lift for easier access into the water
- A public sauna next to the natatorium
The rope swing is the detail people tend to remember. It hangs over the deepest water near the diving boards, comfortably away from the shallow end where younger swimmers usually splash.
The long road to opening day
The pool's story begins with Forward Thrust, the bond measures King County voters approved in 1968. In Seattle, $65 million in park bonds paid for close to 200 recreation projects, seven new public pools among them, and the rules required every one of those pools to sit near a high school.
Queen Anne was meant to be one of the first. Instead, by 1975 it was the only one of the seven not yet finished or under construction. The trouble had started in 1972, because open land around Queen Anne High School was scarce and property there was expensive.
Picking the site
Park Superintendent Hans Thompson proposed placing the pool next to McClure Middle School, and local community groups backed him. Magnolia residents pushed for a site in Interbay, between the two neighborhoods, while a spot on the Seattle Pacific College campus was floated and turned down.
After public debate, and questions over whether the bond language allowed the proposed sites, the City Council's Parks Committee chose the McClure location in late 1973. The bonds covered construction but not land, so the city council and Seattle Public Schools helped arrange the purchase, with the Parks and Recreation Fund paying $325,000 for ten houses on the block.
Construction and a very warm welcome
Frodesen and Associates won the job with a low bid of $764,000 and broke ground in July 1976. Costs climbed to a final $843,000, and a change of project manager within the Seattle Parks Department, from Donald Harris to Dave Buchan, added months of delay.
Opening day was set for November 9, 1977, but a faulty thermostat heated the water to 100 degrees Fahrenheit instead of the planned 84. The doors opened a day late, on November 10, and Mayor Wesley C. Uhlman formally dedicated the pool on November 21, 1977.
One more early setback followed. In August 1978 the building closed for more than a month after humidity damaged the brickwork and turned it white, since dampproofing had only been partly applied during construction, so crews dried the structure and finished the job.
Benjamin F. McAdoo's Modernist design
The city chose Benjamin F. McAdoo as architect in November 1974. An African-American architect known for Modernist and Northwest Regional work, McAdoo had built his career mostly on private homes, then turned toward civic projects after returning to Seattle in 1964, and this pool is one of them.
Some of the other Forward Thrust pools went Brutalist or New Formalist. McAdoo took a quieter path, drawing heavily on the neighboring middle school so the pool would match its surroundings in both materials and scale.
Read the building from the street
Start out front, where reinforced concrete is faced with brick laid in a running bond. The footprint forms roughly a T, and its wide, single-story section faces 1st Avenue W with a deep, recessed entrance of six bays, each 6 feet wide, and a pair of doors in the middle.
The pool itself sits in the taller leg of the T, set back from the street. Glance up at the red roof, which is asymmetrical and switches between sloped corrugated metal and flat sections, following the depth of the water below and rising where the diving board needs clearance.
Notice the stepped parapet, McAdoo's nod to older buildings. Grassy berms to the north and south, along with trees and flower beds, help the pool settle gracefully into a block made up mostly of single-family homes.
Step inside the natatorium
Indoors, the Modernist character really comes through. Exposed concrete walls give way to brick near the top, wood slat paneling adds warmth, and exposed timber beams stained to match the brick carry a roof lined with skylights along its outer edge.
The building covers 13,300 square feet in all. Out front, a 50 foot wide concrete walkway with bollards and a bike rack leads from the entrance to the street and the crosswalk toward the school.
A Seattle landmark since 2024
In May 2024, the Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board designated Queen Anne Pool a city landmark, listed as City of Seattle landmark number 829. The honor celebrates a building still doing exactly what it was built to do, almost five decades on.
Keep exploring with our guide to all Seattle landmarks.
Find the pool on Queen Anne Hill
You will find Queen Anne Pool near the top of Queen Anne Hill, about 380 feet above sea level. Its block runs between Queen Anne Avenue N on the east and 1st Avenue W on the west, with McClure Middle School across 1st Avenue, and the bike rack out front comes in handy if you ride up the hill.
Wander the surrounding streets with our West Queen Anne neighborhood guide.
Nearby stops
Several spots sit just a few minutes away on foot, so it is easy to pair your swim with errands or a stroll:
- Queen Anne Farmers Market, less than 0.1 mile away
- West Queen Anne Playfield, less than 0.1 mile away
- Bethany Presbyterian Church, a city landmark less than 0.1 mile away
- Frances Skinner Edris Nurses Home, a landmark about 0.2 mile away
- East Queen Anne Playground, about 0.2 mile away
- Queen Anne Boulevard, a landmark about 0.2 mile away
- Sunset Telephone and Telegraph/Queen Anne Masonic Temple, a landmark about 0.3 mile away
- Queen Anne Branch of the library, about 0.3 mile away
These distances are straight-line, so your actual walk on the hill may run a little longer.
