#TBT: Corpus Christi swimmers in 1908 loved this windmill-powered water slide
The Corpus Christi Natatorium that residents know today hosts school swim meets and practices and pool parties on the far Southside of the city. But back in the early 1900s, swimmers knew the Natatorium at the end of Twigg Street downtown.
The Natatorium was operated by George Washington Grim, and sat on a pier at Twigg and Water streets extending out over the bay, and opened about 1906. Though most know of natatoriums as indoor pools, the “Nat” as it was known around town, didn’t quite fit that description. The Nat operated as a spa, with 198 bathing rooms with copper bathtubs filled with hot sulfur baths, piped in from the well in Artesian Park, called Artesian Square at the time. Grim had to install copper pipes and tubs because the water was corroding the original iron pipes and tubs.
In addition to the sulfur baths, which cost $1, visitors could rent a boat for a pleasure cruise, fish from the pier, rent a bathing suit (yikes) for a dip in the large swimming area around the pier, or take a ride down “Old Nat,” a wind-powered slide in the bay. A windmill on top of the slide drew water up to the top for a slippery ride down, and was a popular attraction, even after a storm blew away the windmill around 1910.
More: #TBT: Hurricane in 1916 brought punishing winds and damage to Corpus Christi
In his memoir, “When the Century and I were Young,” local resident Theodore A. Fuller wrote that the Natatorium wasn’t the first bath house in town, but it was one of the most popular. He noted that The Nat attempted to control the jellyfish population with a net that stretched around its large bathing area.
“The net became ludicrous when more jellyfish appeared to be trying to get out than in,” Fuller reminisced.
But as many structures on the bayfront in those early days found, it couldn’t last forever. On Aug. 18, 1916, a hurricane with winds 130 mph – a Category 4 storm, though the scale wasn’t invented yet – made landfall around Baffin Bay between Kenedy and Kleberg counties. A 9-foot storm surge swept through Corpus Christi Bay and knocked out most of the structures along the bayfront, including the Natatorium.
Allison Ehrlich writes about things to do in South Texas and has a weekly Throwback Thursday column on local history.
This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: This wind-powered water slide thrilled Corpus Christi swimmers in 1908
