Volume 11 , Issue 18

Looking Back ... To the Future

The McGill Bros. Furniture had two stores in the 600 block of Barnes Avenue, in Alva, Oklahoma. The first store was just East of DeGeer's two-story building.

The DeGreer building had the Grocery Store on the bottom floor, main floor and apartments on the second story.

The McGill Bros. swimming pool once resided behind the first McGill Bros. Furniture store (blue furniture store), but the swimming pool has since been filled in and no longer exists today.

We have heard from others that the college girls practiced swimming routines at the McGill's swimming pool in downtown Alva, just off the southwest corner of the square. We are assuming the picture to the left is a photo of the college girls posing for a group photo shoot on the west side of the pool.

In the early 1900s when Bill McGill was playing baseball for the SW Texas League (Austin Senators, 1906-07), the major league (St. Louis Browns, 1907), Bill would travel around with the ball teams and buy furniture to ship back to Alva.

Others have shared stories about McGill Bros. swimming pool and how kids would slip in at night, swim (sometimes in the nude). It was told thru other McGill relatives that Gene McGill and his cousin, Jack Erskine, would sleep over at the pool and chase the kids out.

I have also heard stories that Gene would dive off the two-story DeGreer building on the West side in his birthday suit and young girls would sneak in at night to watch.

The following is a poem about the McGill Bros. Swimming Pool, written by Wm. J. "Bill" McGill:

McGill Bros Swimming Pool
At the close of sultry summer day
Join the crowds that wend their way
To plunge in water fresh and cool
At McGills' most popular Swimming Pool.
And just a few steps from the door
You'll find their Famous Furniture Store.
There, too, your needs will be supplied,
And all your tastes be satisfied.
McGill Brothers, S.W. Cor. Square.
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