Today, Pulliam Pools stands tall as the oldest pool contracting business in America. Pulliam and his business has grown up with the families who have hired Pulliam Pools for an aquatic addition to their homes. Just as Pulliam is a third-generation owner of Pulliam Pools, having taken the reins of the company from his father, he has several third-generation customers in Fort Worth and surrounding areas. "Our consumers know us, but more importantly, we know them," Pulliam said. 'As a company, we just keep getting better. After almost 90 years, if you pay close enough attention, you know what your customer wants and you know the best way to give it to them." Pulliam said that one of the most important things he learned from watching his grandfather and father conduct business was the importance of making himself available.

'People come to us because they don't want to hire some stranger they'll never hear from again,' he said. 'They hire us because they want a name attached to the company. And we have that – it's my name." Pulliam said that's why he makes sure his home phone number is available to each of his customers.

"When you have an open business like we do, everybody feels better about the product,' Pulliam said. 'We're not trying to hide anything. We're just trying to do the right thing and give people a pool we can be proud of and one they can enjoy."

Barry's grandfather, Theodore Pulliam, opened a humble swimming pool contracting store on Eight Street in Fort Worth in 1916. He used his experience in cement and plastering to construct some of the first swimming pools in Texas. When Theodore Pulliam died in 1957, his son Doren was running the family pool business. Under Doren's leadership, Pulliam Pools built four Fort Worth public park pools and two Tarrant County Junior College pools. Doren Pulliam died in 1998 and left his son Barry the key to the Pulliam Pool kingdom. Barry said the company's reputation sustains business, but it's the company's attitude that has helped Pulliam Pools grow through the years.

'The reputation gets u in the door and once we have access to the customer, it has served its purpose.' Pulliam said. "There is a certain comfort people feel working with us as opposed to a newer company. People feel like there's a history in our company that they can trust – and that's because there is." Pulliam Pool's Fort Worth office is located in south Fort Worth on Altamesa Boulevard.

Pulliam Pools has won many awards, including the Industry Choice Award as National Builder of the Year and the Texas Family Business of the Year award presented by Baylor University. The company's latest honor was being named the Small Business of the Year, 11 to 50 employees, by the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce. Steve Dutton, Executive director of the Fort Worth Samaritan House, was one of the judges who selected Pulliam Pools as winner of the prestigious chamber award. Dutton said that once employees of Pulliam spoke with judges, the pool company had unanimous support for the win.

"All of the companies were great, but Pulliam distinguished itself in all of the areas that the chamber had asked us to review,' Dutton said. 'The enthusiasm of the employees convinced us that the company is above the rest. They reminded us of a family working together - that's how much they seemed to care about each other and about the success of the company."

Pulliam said the company has about 100 pools under construction at any given time. Communication, he said, is not just important; it's vital. "We just keep refining the system," Pulliam said. "That's how you get efficiency in anything you do. We do an extensive review of our procedure during our off-season to perfect what we did well and to correct the things we didn't do as well. After so many years, we have a pretty good system down, but you have to keep working on it. You can't just relax and be happy with what you have or you might just lose it."