To see a video on the Huey P. Long Fieldhouse’s state, click here.
Virginia native Tracy Hall was snooping around her new campus recently. When she noticed the Huey P. Long Fieldhouse, she wanted a closer look.Her curiosity took her up rusty stairs in the back of the building. She leaned over, and she thought to herself, “What is this?””It was like something out of Dickens,” said Hall, library information sciences graduate student.Nearly 75 years later, weeds grow through cracks in the pool’s concrete, and a small tree grows in a corner of the deep side of the pool. Now, The Foundation for Historical Louisiana lists the Fieldhouse on its “Treasures in Trouble” list.But the University has no funds to restore the Fieldhouse, and the building is priority No. 13 on the University’s list of buildings to renovate, according to Emmett David, Facility Development director.”[Treasures in Trouble] puts the spotlight on something that has been forgotten,” said Carolyn Bennett, the foundation’s executive director. The Foundation and Aimee Schmitt, creator of savehpl.org, have been working to increase awareness about the state of the Fieldhouse and pool and raise funds to restore the structure.A meeting between Schmitt, swim coach Adam Schmitt’s wife, and University officials is scheduled for next week. Together they have raised more than $11,000 from a fundraiser and other small donations, Schmitt said. Their next step is to commission a feasibility study to determine the exact costs of the renovations to the pool, Schmitt said.Bennett said the pool has many cultural and traditional memories attached to it. And because the building served as the Student Union at one point, Bennett said the Fieldhouse was a hub of social activity on campus.But the history surrounding the pool is not the sole attraction to the building — many speak of the Fieldhouse’s unique architecture.Leah Jewett, Hill Memorial exhibitions coordinator, learned how to swim in the Fieldhouse pool.”Walls divided the small pool from the main pool,” Jewett said. “I used to hold my breath to see if I can get under the arch into the main pool.”The pool is 180 feet long and 48 feet wide which, in the early 1930s, was the largest pool in the country.Some claim the pool’s unusual length came from then-governor Huey P. Long, who wanted to have the largest pool in the country. When he discovered the initial design of the pool didn’t accomplish that feat, Long made the builders add 10 feet to each side of the pool.”Any other pool must have paled in comparison,” Jewett said.The pool and Fieldhouse were designed by Weiss, Dreyfous and Seithferth, the same firm that designed the Old Governor’s Mansion, the French House and Charity Hospital in New Orleans, Bennett said. “Though it’s overgrown with weeds, it kind of looks like a Roman bath,” Bennett said.”It’s beautiful.” There is no formal program to determine the costs of renovating the Fieldhouse, but restoring the pool would cost $5 million, and restorations to the building would cost an additional $20 million, David estimated. If the University could afford the rennovations, David said the project would take five years to complete if it started today.The Fieldhouse rates low on the priority list because it doesn’t add to the academic or research elements of the campus, said Chuck Wilson, vice provost for Space and Facility Management.Howe-Russell is the University’s first priority, followed by the French House, which was added to the Treasures in Trouble list last year.The University is seeking funds from the state legislature for the French House renovation, David said. The front half of the Fieldhouse is in use, David said. It houses classrooms, the School of Social Work on the second floor and the Department of Kinesiology on the first floor in the College of Education.This occupancy accounts for only 50 percent of the building, David said. The other half of the building is unsuable.The unused space includes racquet ball courts, the old women’s basketball gym, women and men locker rooms and equipment supporting the pool, Wilson said.The pool was closed in fall 2003 because it was leaking badly, and the University did not want to continue putting water in it, Wilson said. “I can’t fathom why LSU won’t restore the pool and why they let it go further and further into disrepair,” said Jennifer Michel, social work graduate student. Michel said her mother and grandmother used to swim there and spoke of it as the place to be to meet people. She said she feels like she is missing out because she didn’t get to swim in the pool.UREC has ruled out the possibility of housing a second location there because of the restriction of space, said Tamara Jarrett, UREC director. But the department is still interested in contributing to the restoration of the pool as a third satellite location for students and would be willing to invest money in the project. “What campus wouldn’t want a structure like [the Fieldhouse]?” Bennett asked. “I can’t imagine an Ivy League taking down a building like that.”—-Contact Allen Womble at [email protected]