Swimming Pools...movie stars...that's how Paddock got started back in the early 1920's, building America's first backyard pools on the estates of wealthy Southern Californians. Back then, a private pool had to be built with formed concrete using heavy machinery—an exorbitantly priced luxury available only to the top echelons of society. But the idea caught on, and in a short time everybody wanted one. Paddock took the concept to the next level, and the modern pool industry was born.

In the 1930's, Paddock built the first 50-meter monolithic pool using pneumatically applied concrete (gunite) at the Biltmore in Santa Barbara. Soon, gunite was the method of choice for pool construction, enabling a new generation of specialized contractors to build affordable residential pools. By the 1940's, Paddock had established the first network of franchised dealers to build its standard designs around the country.