Deep Eddy Spruce Up

Join Friends of Deep Eddy to spruce up the oldest pool in Texas and its surrounding parkland. Volunteers are needed to remove litter and spread compost under trees.

Bring: A full water bottle. Clothing/footwear for getting dirty. Gloves, rakes, pitchforks, mulch sleds and trash grabbers will be on hand, but feel free to bring your own if desired. *Wheelbarrows* are in short supply so bonus points and gratitude for anyone who brings their own! 

Maudie's!  Our friends at Maudie's Tex-Mex are generously donating breakfast tacos for hard working volunteers. Hooray for tacos! Bring an appetite. 

Recommended for volunteers 12 years of age and older. Children under 16 should be accompanied by an adult. The ability to see and identify potentially harmful objects is required for safe trash pick-up. Moving mulch across the sloped site requires the ability to bear weight up to ~60 pounds. Contact organizers for questions/accommodations. 

Meet us at 9:00am on the Eilers Park playground at 401 Deep Eddy Avenue. Deep Eddy and Eilers Park is accessible by bike and foot via The Trail (Butler Trail on Ladybird Lake) and has a dedicated parking lot on site, with more parking along Foster Avenue and Hearn Street. Bike parking also available. 

With your help, we aim to cleanup trash accumulating on the approximately 9 acres of land purchased by the City of Austin from AJ Eilers in 1925. This includes the land and parking lots between the alleyway (Foster Avenue) south to the to  the Butler Hike and Bike Trail/Ladybird Lake, and from Hearn Street (bordered by grad UT student housing) west to Veteran's Drive.

DYK? Deep Eddy Pool opened as a public park and pool in July 1936 after construction of the historic limestone bathhouse. The City of Austin purchased the approximately 9 acre parcel that includes Deep Eddy Pool from A.J. Eilers Sr. for $10,000 in 1935. Eilers owned Deep Eddy Bathing Beach and Resort for about 20 years, building the concrete pool, renting cottages to Austinites and recruiting former circus worker George Rowley to manage the resort and entertainment. Before Eilers installed the concrete pool and spring fed well, cool spring waters bubbled up to the river’s surface and giant cottonwood trees towered over the banks, attracting people seeking respite from Austin’s hot summer days. 

Today, the roughly 9 acres of land still belong to the people of Austin. It includes Deep Eddy Pool, Deep Eddy Community Gardens, a trailhead to the Butler trail and Eilers Park and Playground. It also includes what is now paved and unpaved parking lots, alleyway and street scape. The parkland boundaries are Foster Avenue, Veteran's Drive, the Butler Hike and Bike Trail and Lady Bird Lake, west to Hearn Street.

The pool and bathhouse are listed on the National Register of Historic Places and are City of Austin historic landmarks. The Deep Eddy bathhouse was restored in 2007. 

Thank you for giving time back to the park this It's My Park Day!