Alligators in the Baby Pool: Remembering Tempe Beach

Tempe Beach was an Olympic-sized swimming pool, built in 1923 on the land between First Street and the river bottom in Tempe, Arizona. In the thirties two national swim meets were held there, attracting stars from the Olympic Games. Generations of Tempeans learned to swim there, came of age there, and often first met their spouses there or in the park where people picnicked, skated or played ball under the lights. It was a green, idyllic space for the Anglo settlers of old Tempe, but for its Mexican-American citizens the pool was off limits until 1946 when three hometown WWII veterans— Danny Rodriguez, Genero Martinez, and Raymond Terminal—won a bitter fight to integrate the pool.After that, Tempe Beach was a summer site for all. There were swim and dive teams, Beach-hosted AAU meets, and dibble-dabble games along the deep-end deck. There was a cobble-stone bath house, a snack bar, and a jukebox that played non-stop. In its forty-year existence there was one drowning, one shooting— and, yes, one morning there really were alligators in the baby pool.