Originally compiled by past East Peoria Historical Society President, Frank Borror, in October 2016, with revisions 2025.

The Fondulac Park District’s first swimming pool was constructed in 1929 on part of a ten-acre plot lying between Cole Street and Springfield Road that had previously been purchased from the Ballard family for $12,000. An interesting point is that this property had once been owned by Jacob Funk purported to be the first white child born in Fondulac Township, in a log cabin near where Fondulac Tower Bank now sits. The pool was constructed on the lower portion of this property facing Cole Street. The structure was built under a no-bid contract to Louis Maybee for $39,640 dollars who sublet the entire project to Conrad Iber for $11,440. This was during the Jesse Hall era of corruption, and after plumbing was installed, the public paid $50,000 for a pool that should have cost no more than $18,000. The pool ran in depth from three to ten feet and had a crescent-shaped “baby pool” attached on the Cole Street end. It had a ten-foot diving board (we measured diving boards in feet then, not meters), and a sliding board was added later in the corner of the shallow end. The two wooden bath houses were replaced in 1939 for a more modern dressing area. The pool closed in 1962 but the baby pool was closed several years sooner. 

The Fondulac Park District’s second pool opened on June 1, 1964, off of Springfield Road on a tract of land that had been the Millard Gravel Pit. The park had purchased this ground in 1956 when Virgil McGlothlin was appointed park director. The facility was an “L” shaped design with a three-foot to five-foot Olympic-sized pool and an eleven-foot diving well to the side. This diving well had a three-meter and two one-meter diving boards. A separate toddler’s pool set to the side. This pool was unique to any other in the area because it had a grass sunning area on the hillside connected to the pool and was very attractive to teenagers. It had a spacious bathhouse, and filtering equipment was housed in a separate building. A two-hundred-thirty-foot water slide, built and operated by a private concessionaire, was added some years later. The pool closed in 1994, a victim of the proliferation of backyard swimming pools. 

East Peoria also had a semi-public pool at one time on Fondulac Drive. The Lakeview Girls Camp, organized in the 1920s, had a camp that included a swimming pool. It was designed primarily to serve Girl Reserves and YWCA Industrial Girls. These were girls working in factories and other industries, and the camp offered them “good food, fresh air, and a place to relax.” The pool was also available to other groups, such as the Girl Scouts. The camp and pool closed in 1954. Prior to this, the only swimming available, except for the Illinois River, was some deep spots in Farm Creek and what later would be referred to as Iber’s Pond off Caterpillar Trail. 

Splash Down Aquatic Park at Eastside Centre was constructed in 1996 by the Fondulac Park District under the direction of Jim Couts, park director, in conjunction with Eastside Center. The three-acre, one and a half million-dollar facility features a three-story treehouse with a one thousand gallon dump bucket, a two hundred thirty foot lazy river, a tube slide, a seven lane lap pool, and kiddie pool. All of its water was heated. It began as part of a cooperative effort between East Peoria High School, East Side Corporation, Fondulac Park District, and eventually the City of East Peoria. Splashdown eventually closed in 2018.