The Richmond Municipal Natatorium, now dubbed the Plunge, turns 100 this year, born the same year as such lovable icons as Route 66<\/a>, filmmaker Mel Brooks<\/a> and that \u201csilly old bear\u201d Winnie-the-Pooh<\/a>.<\/p>\n And just as it did a century ago, Richmond, a city of 115,000 people, plans to celebrate,<\/a> because the Plunge is such a big part of its identity.<\/p>\n \u201cI run into people all the time who tell me their grandparents learned to swim here, their parents learned to swim here, and now they\u2019re taking their kids to take lessons,\u201d Robby Roller, aquatic supervisor for the city of Richmond, told me Wednesday.<\/p>\n The early era of indoor pools<\/p>\n Today, swimming pools<\/a> and summertime in California go hand in hand. (Be sure to check out The Times\u2019 guide to the best cheap places to swim<\/a> around Los Angeles to try this summer!)<\/p>\n But indoor pools were a novelty a century ago. Exceptions included the famed Roman Pool<\/a> at Hearst Castle, with its shimmering blue and gold mosaic tiles and statues of Roman gods and goddesses. Construction began in 1927 and took several years. In 1933, an indoor pool opened at the White House<\/a> for President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had polio and swam for therapy.<\/p>\n The Roman Pool at Hearst Castle.<\/p>\n (Francine Orr \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n When the Richmond Municipal Natatorium opened in March 1926, it was heralded with a parade, a marching band and drum line, a speech by the mayor, and a display of swim stunts and \u201cfancy diving,\u201d as the newspapers called it. The first to take a dip in the shallow end were two 4-year-olds, named Edith and Vera.<\/p>\n In a front-page missive in the Richmond Daily Independent, Mayor W.W. Scott wrote that the pool was a \u201chandsome tribute to the progressive people of the city\u201d who approved bonds that funded its more than $100,000 construction (more than $1.8 million today, when adjusted for inflation).<\/p>\n A whole lot of salt water<\/p>\n The Plunge, Roller told me, started with a local landowner\u2019s failed attempt to drill for oil. He accidentally hit a well of fresh water and gave the parcel to the city, which built a pool inspired by the Sutro Baths in San Francisco<\/a> \u2014 a massive public bathhouse that burned down in 1966.<\/p>\n The Richmond pool was enormous: 160 feet long and 60 feet wide, bigger than an Olympic-size pool. A long pipeline to a municipal wharf pumped in salt water straight from the San Francisco Bay that was mixed with the fresh well water, then heated and put into the pool.<\/p>\n \u201cI still get phone calls from people asking if it\u2019s still a saltwater pool,\u201d Roller said. \u201cIt\u2019s not anymore because the piping became corroded over a hundred years. We have salt in the pool, but it\u2019s part of a chlorine base.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s a survivor<\/p>\n After deteriorating and cracking for decades, the Richmond Plunge was damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. By the late 1990s \u2014 after failed attempts to fund repairs \u2014 it was slated for demolition.<\/p>\n Residents protested. The nonprofit Richmond Friends of Recreation established a \u201cSave the Richmond Plunge Trust.\u201d And the pool reopened in 2010<\/a> after being closed for several years for a $7-million-plus<\/a> renovation funded through a private-public partnership.<\/p>\n On Aug. 15, the city will celebrate the pool\u2019s centennial<\/a> with a building dedication, speeches and demonstrations by lifeguards and others who use the pool, Roller said. Pool entry that day, he said, will be $1 per family.<\/p>\n Today\u2019s top stories Travelers infectious with measles have passed through Los Angeles International Airport recently, including passengers who arrived on a Delta flight from Canc\u00fan and a British Airways flight from London.<\/p>\n (Irfan Khan\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Measles surge dramatically in CaliforniaCalifornia has confirmed 52 measles cases<\/a> in the first 6\u00bd months of the year; that\u2019s more than double the 25 cases reported in all of 2025.Of this year\u2019s 52 cases, 49 patients were either unvaccinated or had an unknown vaccination record. Many cases involve children or young adults.Sony and Alamo Drafthouse to reopen the iconic Cinerama DomeUC to review high school course requirements amid SAT debateWhat else is going onCommentary and opinionsThis morning\u2019s must-readOther must-readsFor your downtime Jacqueline Castro runs tennis drills with her daughter, Ruby, 5, during a Mommy & Me tennis class at Burbank Tennis Club.<\/p>\n (Samanta Helou Hernandez \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n Going outStaying inA question for you: What do you like about daylight saving time?<\/p>\n Email us at essentialcalifornia@latimes.com<\/a>, and your response might appear in the newsletter this week.<\/p>\n And finally … your photo of the day The living room\u2019s double-arch sliding glass doors are mirrored on the east and west walls, creating a breezy walk-through.<\/p>\n (Ronaldo Bola\u00f1os \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Today\u2019s great photo is from Times photographer Ronaldo Bola\u00f1os at the historic Spanish-style, Wallace Neff home of a La Ca\u00f1ada Flintridge couple. Twenty years and $3.7 million later, the home has returned to glory<\/a>.<\/p>\n Have a great day, from the Essential California team<\/p>\n Hailey Branson-Potts, staff writer How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com<\/a>. Check our top stories<\/a>, topics<\/a> and the latest articles<\/a> on latimes.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Six young women \u2014 hair fashionably bobbed, shins covered by knee-high socks \u2014 posed in dark, modest swimming…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409426,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,2299,1085,891,2300,2297,340,2303,63,2302,1086,1459,2301,2298,74,225,315,688],"class_list":["post-409425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-civic-revolt","tag-covid","tag-covid-19","tag-days","tag-essential-california","tag-israel","tag-l-a","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-may","tag-pandemic","tag-part","tag-president-biden","tag-red-county","tag-san-diego","tag-state","tag-time","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784814489_668_.jpeg\")
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Hugo Mart\u00edn, assistant editor, fast break desk
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Andrew Campa, weekend writer
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters<\/p>\n