Did Portland’s Eastern Promenade previously have a swimming pool?

A swimming pool was built on Portland’s Eastern Promenade in the 1960s, but it was closed and eventually filled in during the 1980s.

Earlier plans to add a pool to the Eastern Promenade were revived in the early 1960s, according to a review of Press Herald archives.

The pool’s closure over two decades later was largely related to efforts to renovate the area in the mid-1980s. The Portland Old Port website also suggests that “rising insurance costs for the city played a significant role in the decision.”

By 1986, the pool was described as abandoned, and the city was planning to revamp the area; an article that August noted issues with vandalism, keg parties and “other unsavory activities.”

After the city appropriated $180,000 for the improvements, work began in the spring of 1987 and included the abandoned pool being filled in with cement.