Fairchild Swimming Pool is part of Fairchild Park located near the city cemeteries near Houston St. As far as I can tell, this is the closest to downtown free swimming pool. It is one of several public swimming pools run by San Antonio Parks and Rec. All outdoor public swimming pools run by the city are free to all, open six days a week throughout the summer swimming season, and follow very similar rules and protocol. This review will focus on Fairchild Swimming Pool and what sets it apart from other city swimming pools.
As with most city pools, you are required to sign in at the front desk with name, age group, and gender. These roles help the parks department obtain funding to continue operation of the pools, so it is very important to sign in.
A family favorite, and not just because it was the closest to our home. Fairchild Pool has had consistent and mature staff over the past few seasons so the lifeguards are no greenhorns to the job.
To pool is fairly basic and a short walking distance from the parking lot, but your car remains in sight which can be important in this area. Fairchild Pool has a large shallow swimming area and a decent sized deep area ranging from 3ft to 9ft.
This pool used to have a diving board but it was removed after a tragic accident during the 2017 season. The good that came out of it is the pool was completely renovated over the spring in 2018 with new pump equipment and a pool lift, making this one of the more fresh feeling pools to swim in. It can be incredibly refreshing to dive in after a long day.
Fairchild Pool is one of a handful a pools not running at the normal 1pm to 7pm hours, it opens at 2pm and runs until 8pm. the entire pool is surrounded by concrete which can become blisteringly hot in the summer. Be warned. The west side of the pool has decent tree coverage for the bi-hourly swimming breaks times for the pool pH to settle.
Food is not allowed, although you may bring drinking water. There are both Men's and Women's bathrooms with a small dressing area, and a shower off area near the pool entrance. Radios seem pretty well tolerated here, and someone is usually rocking music at either side of the pool.
Fairchild Pool is rarely busy as Lincoln Pool is just up the street, so there is always ample room to play or swim laps. The southeast corner of the pool does have a problem with wasps every now and then, but it's not too bad.
Interesting tidbit, from the south side of the pool, you can see the Mass Grave of Alamo Defenders in the Oddfellow Cemetery. read more