AUSTIN, Texas — The bathhouse that sits next to Barton Springs Pool is undergoing some major renovations. And along with the physical changes, the building is also getting a new name.
Last week, the Austin City Council officially declared the structure will now be call the Joan Means Khabele Bathhouse at Barton Springs Pool.
"We've known for a while that William Barton is problematic,” Parks and Recreation Board Chair Pedro Villalobos told KVUE in November. “He was [an] owner of enslaved people, and he has had a problematic history with the indigenous people of the area."
Villalobos created the Barton Springs Bathhouse Working Group to create new name suggestions for the building once the renovations are officially finished.
The current bathhouse was created in 1947, and the city plans to make structural repairs to the building that include upgrading the rotunda and changing rooms.
“I thought that it was going to be an appropriate time to look at whether there was a appropriate name that we could name the bathhouse after,” Villalobos said in November. “In honor of something historic and meaningful that took place at Barton Springs.”
Who was Joan Means Khabele?
From its opening day up until 1962, Barton Springs Pool remained segregated.
Before the pool was desegregated, teenager Joan Means Khabele became the first Black person to jump in the water in 1960 as a form of protest.
Khabele essentially kickstarted a series of "swim-ins" to protest the racial separation. Two years later, the pool was open for everyone.
The Parks and Recreation Department received an application to change the name to Joan Means Khabele Bathhouse. Once the application was submitted, the community had 90 days to submit comments and more name nominations. The 90-day period ended on Jan. 18, 2024. After that, the recommendation was considered and eventually approved by the city council.
Previous renaming suggestions
Previous names under consideration were those of people who occupied the land before it became Barton Springs Pool.
"There are these interconnected network of springs that the indigenous people believe to be sacred to them,” Villalobos told KVUE in November. "Our group intended this to be a conversation starter. We're going to tackle the project of the name of the bathhouse, and we'll cross the Barton Springs bridge when we get there."
The full list of name suggestions from the Barton Springs Bathhouse Working Group’s report is listed below. The grope recommended the following, in no particular order, as potential names for the bathhouse:
Means Bathhouse - this name reflects the important works of the Means family, including Joan Means Khabele and her mother, Bertha Sadler means, a civil rights activist in Austin.
Joan Means Khabele Bathhouse - this name reflects the instrumental role of Joan Means Khabele in desegregating Barton Springs Pool
Means-Martinez Bathhouse - this name reflects the joint contributions of Joan Means Khabele and David Martinez with desegregating Barton Springs Pool
Yanaguana Springs Bathhouse – a Coahuiltecan word, yanaguana means “spirit waters” and can also be used a term to refer to a spring feature
Tza Wan Pupako Springs Bathhouse – the Coahuiltecan used the term “Tza Wan Pupako” to refer specifically to Barton Springs