IN SAN JOSE, Rotary Ryland Pool sits right at the geographical center of the celebrated 880/280/101 polygon, now bisected by Highway 87. That fact alone might hold some sort of sacred geometrical occult significance to some, but in any event, the recently restored pool is one of San Jose’s hidden treasures. The issue of its future was commendably brought back to my attention by Tina Morrill, a local community booster and one of the folks who led the charge to replace the pool’s historical Batchelder tiles a few years ago.
Situated in Ryland Park in San Jose’s quaint Vendome neighborhood, Rotary Ryland Pool was San Jose’s first public pool, built 1926–27. It’s an unusual oval-shaped pool, 4 feet deep in the middle and 2 feet at the edges, and its Batchelder Dutch Boy tiles are what make the original landscaping unique. Generations have learned how to swim in this pool.
The neighborhood itself is quite worthy of urban exploration. You can start at the back of the park, right where North San Pedro dead-ends into the Coleman Avenue overpass from the north side. From there, you can worm your way through the ‘hood, which features numerous old-worldly homes.
When the powers that be were hellbent on destroying the pool a few years ago, members of many local neighborhood community associations bonded together and fought to save and restore the facility, as it really should be a registered historic landmark. With all the ballyhoo about parks being shut down because of budget cuts and whatnot, Morrill is rightfully concerned and gunning to make sure the issue remains on everyone’s front burner. After all, Ryland himself was quite a major San Jose figure back in the late 1800s. Everyone who was anyone in San Jose attended numerous social events at his mansion, which sat where the park is now.
Sporting one of those classic 19th-century names, Caius Tacitus Ryland was one of the all-time legends in the annals of San Jose history—a grand titan of local lore if ever there was one. He was a founding member of almost everything during San Jose’s initial stages as the first capital of California and a key player in almost every industry: banking, agriculture, public utilities, education and transportation.
He sat on the City Council in 1861 and was on the first board of trustees for the State Normal School, the lineage of which eventually led to what’s now San Jose State University. He was among those who launched the California Society of Pioneers and also originally helped bring the railroad to San Jose. When the state capital moved away to Vallejo, Ryland spearheaded an unsuccessful attempt to bring it back to San Jose. He was a state assemblyman; he chaired the 1876 Democratic State Convention; and he also married the daughter of California’s first governor.
For the conspiracy theorists among you, he was also, in 1850, one of the founding officers of San Jose Lodge No. 10, Free & Accepted Masons, which eventually led to that building currently over there in the badlands off Curtner Avenue. Yes, the origins of Freemasonry in California are directly intertwined with San Jose becoming the first state capital. When I find a connection to the bloodline of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, I’ll let you know.
But I digress. The important thing here is that Ryland Pool must never be shut down, no matter what transpires over there in the budget-juggling circus at 200 E. Santa Clara St. With all the history behind both the park and the pool, it would be a travesty of justice if that place gets left out in the cold.
In fact, Morrill is so passionate about the issue that she even brought a few Batchelder tiles over to a local coffeehouse and showed them to me in person while explaining the entire history of the situation from day one. At our rendezvous, all I could do was sink into an easy chair, slurp Turkish coffee and listen, but I absolutely shared her concern, no joke. If the city of San Jose is even considering shutting down Ryland Park because of budget cuts, they must be headed off at the pass. If ol’ Caius Tacitus were around today, he’d make sure of it.
