FLASH BRIEFING

Foundation gives $2.1M for Barton Springs Bathhouse

Combined public and private fund reaches $8 million goal for rehab

Michael Barnes
mbarnes@statesman.com
The Barton Springs Bathhouse is receiving a $2.1 million gift from the Moody Foundation to complete the historic structure's rehabilitation. [JAY JANNER/AMERICAN-STATESMAN]

The guests gathered at the lip of Barton Springs Pool at dusk on Thursday beamed with long-delayed pleasure as philanthropist Ross Moody announced his family foundation’s $2.1 million gift to complete the rehabilitation of the Barton Springs Bathhouse, an estimated $8 million project that has been some 20 years in the making.

“It's an Austin treasure,” said Moody, who has been swimming at the pool since 1980. “The project brings together health, wellness and nature as well as historical, cultural and environmental preservation. It’s a one-stop shop."

The bathhouse, designed in 1947 by Recreation Department staff architect Dan Driscoll in the streamlined moderne style, has long needed an upgrade. The Austin-based firm of Limbacher & Godfrey Architects has been charged with the rehab project.

“A master plan was five years in the making with 108 public meetings,” said George Cofer, environmentalist and CEO of the Hill Country Conservancy, a guest at Thursday's “Toast to the Springs” event. “It then took three years for them to put together all the funding, but I suspect that 20 years ago we were saying, long-term, we're going to need to do something.”

Friends of Barton Springs Pool, a longtime advocacy group, had prodded the city of Austin to seek a master plan for the site.

Four years ago, the Barton Springs Conservancy was formed to raise private funds for several related projects, including the recent rehab of the site’s 1928 stone gateposts.

“The bathhouse project will be funded by a combination of efforts,” said Barton Springs Conservancy board Chairman Michael Cannatti said. “That includes $2 million in 2012 bond money, $3 million in newly available hotel taxes and $3 million in private gifts."

Based in Galveston, the Moody Foundation has given away an estimated $1.5 billion to Texas projects during the past 75 years or so. Recently, as members of the family have settled in Austin — or grew up here — more than $100 million has gone to Austin projects, including $20 million to the Blanton Museum of Art to redo its grounds.

“We’ve pledged to give $90 million more statewide this year,” Moody said. “Of that, $30 million will go to green spaces, most of those in Austin.”

Philanthropist Lynne Dobson got to know the bathhouse campaign’s honorary co-chairwoman Luci Baines Johnson during the fundraising for the boardwalk along Lady Bird Lake.

“We visited one of the changing rooms together and it was — ugh!” Dobson said. “It’s kind of been forgotten. Parts of it are shabby.”

“My mother said that the environment is where we all meet,” Johnson said during a short speech to kick off the formal program. “Truth is, Barton Springs is where we all meet.”

MORE MOODY FOUNDATION GIFTS TO AUSTIN

$50 million donation to UT a case of serendipity

Moody Foundation gives $20 million to Austin’s Blanton Museum of Art

$15 million grant to fund Waterloo Park makeover, new amphitheater

Moody Foundation gives $9.7 million to enhance Pease Park

Transcendent YMCA Party benefits Camp Moody

Contemporary’s downtown museum gets new looks, space

Soggy but happy debut for Moody Pavilion at Laguna Gloria