Evening strolls through Victoria Park often lead to a large stone adorned with a bronze marker laid in 1923. The marker reads “This swimming pool erected by the corporation and citizens of Smiths Falls under the auspices of the Rotary Club.” Antique postcards featuring beautiful images of the Rotary Pool are relatively common. An old black and white film produced in the 1930s, includes footage of happy children diving, splashing, swimming, and playing poolside—but where is the pool?

I have practiced the art of magic and illusion for forty-five years. I can levitate my beautiful wife Marion in the air with ease. I divide her into two pieces and restore her on a regular basis. On a really good day, I can even vanish from the stage where I am performing and reappear in the middle of the audience. When I realized that a massive concrete swimming pool just down the street from our house had vanished, my attention was piqued. I began consulting old newspapers and made some phone calls. Here is what I discovered.

The Rotary Club of Smiths Falls was chartered as the 1189th club in 1922. It was unique at the time as it was the only group in town that permitted men of different denominations to meet socially. It was a service club that provided fellowship, networking opportunities, and a chance to engage in public service—but unlike the Freemasons and other organizations active at that time, without secrecy and bizarre rituals. Within a year of being organized, they had built a very impressive public swimming pool for the town. A pool house with separate changing rooms for men and women stood beside it. The attraction was built on Wood Island east of Beckwith Street and north of Canal Street, across from the War Memorial Cenotaph. In A History of the Smiths Falls Lock Stations, 1827-1978 Peter DeLottinville tells us that this site was formerly Robert Wesley Joynt’s blacksmith shop.