PA R K E R C O U N T Y T O D AY
APRIL 2016
8
“Our goal is to train employees
who will be able to step into our
shoes when we’re too old to do this.
We’ve planned this for continuity, for
the employees, for our customers. We
feel like someday, when it’s our time
to retire, we will sell the company to
employees that we’ve been mentoring along over the last years.”
Smith and Clark are preparing to
celebrate Pulliam Pools’ 100 years in
business.
“It’s a real landmark,” Smith
said. “It’s something to celebrate.
To accomplish this in a construction industry is almost unheard of.
Typical economic ups and downs
impact the building industry in ways
that not many survive. Bad weather,
labor shortages, unregulated builders
who have no scruples and unforeseen
economic turnarounds challenge the
best of all companies. Add in wars,
recessions, union growth, gender
roles in society, and other historical
events over one hundred years, and
the challenges multiplied.”
Pulliam not only survived, but
thrived and became a nationally
recognized name in the industry.
“Pulliam is rated in the top 100 in
the nation,” Smith said. The company began as a concrete company,
founded by brothers Theodore
Creswell Pulliam and Frank ‘Pop’
Pulliam in 1914.
“In those days, there was no such
thing as a dedicated swimming pool
contractor, so if you wanted a pool
you called a cement contractor,”
Smith said. “They started building
cement cattle dipping vats and it
evolved from there.”
Both were so successful at
constructing the waterproof vats that
they were asked to design and build
the first pool in Coryell County in
1916. The two brothers separated the
businesses.
“Theodore began building pools
under the name of Pulliam Pools,”
Smith said. “Frank continued in the
concrete business.”
Theodore built the Gatesville
Public Park pool in 1925. Pulliam’s
rich history began there.
“Many of us have watched old
westerns and marvel at the lack of
technology back then,” Smith said.
“To put things in perspective, there
1960 Pool Talk Magazine
were no modern concrete trucks that
you see today.”
Phones, fax machines and the
Internet were not available. You
could not Google information.
Pulliam had to rely on their own
devices to create projects. They had
to mix concrete on site using hand
cranks drawn by horse and buggy.
There were no modern hydraulics
and chemicals were non-existent,
so the pools had to be drained
weekly in the hot Texas sun to have
good sanitation. Filters consisted of
concrete blocks built into a square
container where layers of sand and
rock were stacked. Water from the
pool was pumped over the mixture
and directed back into the vessel.
Pool chemicals changed the way
water was treated.
Before the advent of sprayed-on
gunite, pools had poured concrete
walls, and poured floors which
would lead to cracking and leaking
along the joints. The most expensive way was to over-excavate the
pool and have form boards where
concrete was poured.
“Second-generation-owner Doren
Pulliam took over the company in
1934,” Smith said. “He developed
many ‘firsts’ himself. He built a new
location at 2221 8th Street in Fort
Worth. Doren was an innovator and
he developed many of the engineering and structural design standards
which are still in use today.”
Doren recognized the importance
of customer service. “He operated