The Wichita City Council unanimously approved renaming McAdams Pool as Charles McAfee Pool.
Considered by many as the most important African American architect in the United States, Mr. McAfee designed the pool that was built in 1969. It won an award from the American Institute of Architects the following year.
Mr. McAfee explained how the pool came to be. “The reason I designed that pool is because young, black children only were able to practice sports on the poorest courts in the world. We didn’t know anything about swimming lanes, so I put lanes in it….so we could teach our young kids the importance of Olympic swimming," Mr. McAfee said.
The pool is currently undergoing renovations as a part of the city's Aquatics Master Plan and is expected to reopen in summer 2021.