Today, the Michigan Union is where students grab a snack, study or meet up with friends between classes. But a century ago, students could pop in to practice their crawlstroke.

The basement level, where the Barnes & Noble bookstore now sits, once housed a swimming pool.

The Michigan Union, designed by architects Pond and Pond, opened in 1919 with a billiards room, a barber shop, meeting spaces, and student dining rooms, but a lack of funding delayed the pool’s completion for another six years.

The pool finally opened in late 1925, and the university dedicated it on Jan. 15, 1926, during a swim meet against Wisconsin (U-M was victorious).

For four decades, the Union pool offered a convenient place for swim meets, water polo matches, and recreation — if you were a man. While women were allowed into the pool with a male escort or for special events, the Union — and thus, the pool — was reserved primarily for men. The Union didn’t officially open its doors to women until 1968, two years after the pool closed.

By the 1960s, the pool’s use had reportedly declined significantly, and maintenance costs were rising. As a result, the university closed the pool in 1966 and replaced it with administrative offices. Eventually, the space was turned into a bookstore.

The transition, however, wasn’t apparent to all. In 1998, former Alumni Association Director Bob Forman told The Michigan Daily that visitors carrying towels and looking for a pool would occasionally wander into his office, which was built over the old diving board.