Yes.

A swimming pool was built on Portland’s Eastern Promenade in the 1960s, but it was closed and eventually filled in during the 1980s.

Earlier plans to add a pool to the Eastern Promenade were revived in the early 1960s, according to a review of Press Herald archives.

The pool’s closure over two decades later was largely related to efforts to renovate the area in the mid-1980s. The Portland Old Port website also suggests that “rising insurance costs for the city played a significant role in the decision.”

By 1986, the pool was described as abandoned, and the city was planning to revamp the area; an article that August noted issues with vandalism, keg parties and “other unsavory activities.”

After the city appropriated $180,000 for the improvements, work began in the spring of 1987 and included the abandoned pool being filled in with cement.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

• Portland Public Library: Casco Bay Weekly: April 13, 1989 (“Neglected Gifts,” Page 9)
• Newspapers.com: Evening Express, Dec. 19, 1963, page 19
• Newspapers.com: Evening Express, Feb. 14, 1984, page 10
• Newspapers.com: Evening Express, Oct. 16, 1986, page 1
• Newspapers.com: Evening Express, May 2, 1987, page 3
• Portland Old Port: Eastern Promenade Pool 1970s & 2024