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Published in The Seattle Times online on Jan. 1, 2026
and in Pacific NW Magazine of the printed Times on Jan. 4, 2026

Meadowbrook Pool turns 50

‘A sense of belonging’ where there’s ‘nothing but water’

By Clay Eals

If you zip along busy 35th Avenue Northeast, Meadowbrook Pool is hard to miss, just as when it opened 50 years ago.

The building bears a distinctively broad and slanted roof. Up a wooded sweep of steps and inside the entry, its bustling lobby acts as a prelude to action in the pool itself. Swimmers dot the pool’s water beneath a wood-beamed vault ceiling that creates the aura of a mountain lodge.

Smiles are everywhere — exactly the point when the natatorium was dreamed up with six other city pools  and voter-approved as part of the Forward Thrust campaign in 1968.

“In a place like Seattle, there was really nowhere to learn to swim except the lakes,” recalls 94-year-old Green Lake resident David Towne, city Parks superintendent when Meadowbrook opened. “I think the idea was to teach everybody to swim and live in this part of the world where we have nothing but water.”

Designed by Seattle architects Calvin/Gorasht, the 44-by-75-foot pool was dedicated Oct. 28, 1975. It presides at the southeast corner of Meadowbrook Playfield, a site with deep roots. Formerly part of Meadowbrook Golf Course, established in the early 1930s, the complex abuts the 1963 Nathan Hale High School, mirroring school/pool placements elsewhere in Seattle.

Though fueled by Forward Thrust money — bond measures that created the Kingdome, neighborhood improvements, arterial highways and other projects — Meadowbrook Pool’s construction was no easy endeavor.

Hindered by swampy land near Thornton Creek and bids more expensive than forecast, plus economic fallout from the notorious Boeing Bust in the early 1970s, the project took several years longer than anticipated to complete.

Today, however, the pool — with a newer community center built next door in the late 1990s — is a point of pride, what Towne calls a “mark of achievement” for a district tucked between Lake City Way and northern Lake Washington. Of course, he allows that not everyone is a swimmer, but the pool and community-center combo provides a sum greater than its parts, a place “to socialize, be involved. It adds a sense of belonging.”

Embodying that spirit is Jenson Yuen, who grew up in the neighborhood and began swimming at Meadowbrook at age 4.

He started volunteering at the pool in 2010, has been employed there for 11 years and is now senior lifeguard and assistant coordinator.

“Connecting with various generations” inspires him, he says. “In our recreation swim, we have grandmothers bringing their grandkids. We have parents who take the day off, who take their newborn babies here, and they swim. It’s truly a way for everyone to come together, and it’s a really great place to just have fun.”

WEB EXTRAS

Big thanks to Valarie Bunn, Jeanette Voiland, Dave Belanger, Stacy Moe, Jenson Yuen and especially David Towne for their invaluable help with this installment!

To see Clay Eals‘ 360-degree video of the “Now” prospect and compare it with the “Then” photos while hearing this column read aloud by Clay, check out our Seattle Now & Then 360 version of the column.

Below, you will find a video interview of Jenson Yuen,  the pool’s dedication program, 14 additional photos and 8 historical clips from The Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer online archive (available via Seattle Public Library), Newspapers.com, Washington Digital Newspapers and other sources that were helpful in the preparation of this column.