The year was 1919. America was in its heyday, Hollywood introduced 'talkies', John D. Rockefeller amassed vast fortunes, the Flapper Era was in full swing and Edward L. Wagner founded what today is the country's oldest swimming pool company. In the same vein as the great baths of Rome, Wagner introduced New England to the splendor of public swimming in the privacy of one's own backyard. His first masterwork was for Hollywood producer Adolph Zukor, for whom he tiled the pool's interior end-to-end.