Margaret Manson Weir Memorial Pool

Marland Heights, southeast of downtown and the city's industrial core, occupies Weirton's most elevated position, both literally and figuratively. Houses dating from the 1920s to the 1950s line streets overlooking the Ohio River to the west, and the rest of Weirton to the north and east. During the Depression, employees built this community pool with funds provided from the will of David Weir, one of the company's founders, to honor his mother.

Wesley Bintz of Lansing, Michigan, patented plans for the egg-shaped swimming pool in February 1923. Stylistically, it is a perfect example of Depression-era Moderne design, with its curved red brick walls punctuated by white-painted concrete copings and posts that support globe lights. Its recessed entrance, framed with stepped pilasters, leads to a virtually unchanged check-in lobby and dressing rooms, where attendants still distribute wire baskets to patrons to store clothes and valuables while they swim. Stairs lead up to the level of the pool, where one can well imagine Esther Williams executing a flawless backstroke.

Williams Drive ( not named for Esther) leads from the side of the pool and park along a ridge to the private Williams Country Club, a stone Tudor Revival mansion spectacularly sited on the brow of a bluff overlooking the Ohio River far below.