Deep Eddy Bathing Beach
Austin, Travis County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Swedish immigrant Charles Johnson built a large home for his family on 39 ares of land in this vicinity in the 1850s. In 1902 two of his children, Mary and Henry, opened Deep Eddy Resort. The Johnsons named the park for a deep hole in the limestone bed of Colorado River at this site that caused the water's current to from an eddy. Recreational facilities included campsites, picnic areas, rental cottages, and a cable ride into the river. Mary Johnson sold the park to A. J.Eilers in 1915. He built a concrete swimming pool in 1916 and renamed the resort Deep Eddy Bathing Beach. Managed by George A. Rowley, the resort featured such attractions as silent movies, a ferris wheel, carousel ride,a diving horse show, trapeze swing over the water, a 70-foot slide, and a 50-foot diving tower. The carnival atmosphere attracted hundreds of visitors each summer. The City of Austin purchased the park for $10,000 on May 31, 1935. Two weeks later a devastating Colorado River flood inundated the city, swept away park improvements, and filled the pool with debris. With assistance from the federal Works Progress Administration, the city rebuilt the park. It reopened in 1936 as Eilers Park and Deep Eddy Swimming Pool. (1991)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Swedish immigrant Charles Johnson settled along the Colorado River in the 1850s, and in 1902 his children opened Deep Eddy Resort at a spot where the current swirled around a deep hole in the limestone riverbed. After A. J. Eilers bought the park in 1915 and added a concrete swimming pool, it blossomed into a full carnival ground with a Ferris wheel, diving tower, trapeze, and even a diving horse. The City of Austin bought the park in 1935, and after a devastating flood weeks later, the Works Progress Administration helped rebuild it into the beloved pool that reopened in 1936.
Why it matters
Deep Eddy grew from an immigrant family's riverside resort into the oldest swimming pool in Texas, a living monument to a century of American leisure and New Deal public works.
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Related people
- ¡ Charles Johnson
- ¡ Mary Johnson
- ¡ A. J. Eilers
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
The Johnson Home
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Charles Johnson, a Swedish immigrant, raised this thick-walled stone house near a Colorado River ford in 1858, quarrying the native stone and burning the lime himself with the help of fellow Swedes. Its eighteen-inch walls and breezeway-joined wings mark the craftsmanship of Central Texas's early Swedish settlers. In 1924 it became the permanent home of an American Legion post, which added the columned porch.
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