Tucked into the back corner of Willet Hall Room 110 sits a pool that was once used regularly by both faculty and students. In 2025, however, it now stands unused after its closure in Fall 2019..
According to Director of Campus Recreation Gus Hemmer, the university closed the pool due to increasing maintenance challenges. “I believe the upkeep needed to make it operational was cost prohibitive,” Hemmer said.
He also added that low student usage contributed to the decision. “I was only in charge of Lifeguards/Recreational Swim hours. When the University asked me about pool use I let them know that according to our records, less than 2.5 students used the pool [on average] during Recreational Swim. I don’t think this helped make a case for it to remain open,” he said.
Back when the pool was open, the pool played a much larger role in student life than one may think. Longwood previously required students to pass a swim test to graduate unless they completed a swimming class.
According to the 1990-91 Longwood College catalog, one of nine undergraduate graduation requirements was to “[Demonstrate] swimming proficiency. Students may pass the College swimming test or pass a swimming course to fulfill this requirement.” Some swimming courses listed include Synchronised Swimming, Non-Swimming (rescue skills) and Scuba Diving.
“I didn't actually take [the swimming test] since I took a swimming class, but the test essentially was being able to get across the pool, usually people were using a freestyle and also treading water,” said Dr. Matthew Lucas, a Physical Education professor who graduated from Longwood in 1994.
According to a Longwood magazine article by Rohn Brown, the swimming test ceased to be a graduation requirement in 1996.
Willet Hall’s pool is not the only one in Longwood’s history. There was also a pool within French Hall at one point in time, though it was removed when the building was renovated.
The lack of a campus pool has created challenges for Longwood’s Swim Club, which has to travel to Hampden-Sydney College just to practice. “It’s hard to transport our whole team over to Hampden-Sydney once a week. So, having a pool here, we’d be able to practice more, and just do more,” said senior Audrey Swoger, the former president of the Longwood Swimming.
Whether Longwood would ever re-open Willett’s pool remains uncertain. “I think it would take a large donation to make the repairs to bring it up to code, plus some sort of continuing funds to maintain the facility,” Hemmer said.
