THE HISTORY OF BATH HOUSES

Wendy Tyson HLTH 412-S4B

The following will be a discussion of recorded history of Bath Houses, paralleled by a chronological outline of some public ideologies of the time.

Opposition, Acceptance, and the Cultural Implementation

Table of Contents
1. 2.

Bath house Defined Traditional Bath Houses : Ancient Greece and Rome Earliest Records: Pre-20th century

7. 8.

Bath Houses of Mid-20th Century Late 20th Century: Cultural Popularization, Movements, and Legislature Bath houses Today References

3. 4.

9.

U.S. Bath Houses during early 20th Century

10.

What is a bath house??

Bath house: A building with facilities for bathing (The American Heritage dictionary, 2001).

Ancient Roman Bath

Gay Baths vs. Brothel

Gay Bath House: Commercial bath houses

which invite the sexual activities, of mostly male, homosexuals.

Legal Today and Membership Based Sexual conduct with NO exchange of money Sex engaged is Not amongst staff, but between

customers.

Early 19th century Bath in NYC

Ancient Greece: 6th Century B.C

Cultural Norms: Plato ideals of a young males scholarly affection of male superior

considered highest form of love ( Durant, 1968).

Above: Art depicting Homosexualism in Ancient Greece

Ancient Rome: ~200 A.D.

Blue prints Roman Bath 220 A.D. Two Saints in Roman Army: St. Polyeuct and Nearchus 259 A.D.

Ancient Rome 217 A.D.

According to Seneca, in his Moral Epistles, (1 ADE),Roman baths became something like a cross between an acquacentre and a theme park,with pools, game rooms, gardens, even libraries and theatres. The Baths of Diocletian: 150,000 square metres of Imperial grandeur, filled with vast halls -- palaestra, caldaria, tepidaria, frigidaria -- awash in life & echoing (pace Seneca) with public pleasures , (Seneca).

Romans adopted this Greek Model

The Baths of Diocletian: 217 A.D.

Renaissance: Florence, Italy 1492

Period when Church attempted to translate Latin decrees to the uneducated common

public in an effort to control behavior.

Above: Terracotta models for pulpit reliefs, Florence, Italy.

Renaissance: Florence, Italy 1492

Frustrated preachers:
Many sermons on

morals :
One of which led to an attempt to eradicate places for homosexual acts in bath houses because it was against the "vice of sodomy (Rock, 1998) .

The Turkish hammam

Opposed to the West,

who was being condemned for their bath houses, the Jews and Turks viewed them as a way to cleanse before payer.

15 century :Purification, meditation A modern hammam, rooted in the Sufi proverb: "Cleanliness is a part of faith."

1876: Paris, France

First recorded police raid on

bathhouse in Paris named the Bains de Gymnase

Charges of 2 managers for pederasty on their property and arrests of 6 young men, which ranged in age from 14-22 years old.

Advertisement for bath house raided. Note, flier states it is reserved for women on Wednesdays, a common faade of male homosexual bathhouses.

Late 19th century: New York's East Side

Long line outside a bath which had:
67 showers 10 tubs

Served 700,000

Male and female clients

Late 19th century: California Bath House

During the American bathing experience of the late 1800s

Early 1900s: New York

Famous

impressionist painter Charles Demuth depicted his favorite bath, the Lafayette Baths in this self portrait in 1918 in New York.

Charles Demuth Bathhouse and Self-Portrait (1918)

1903:Ariston Hotel Baths, New York

First U.S.

recorded raid on a homosexual bathhouse at the Ariston Hotel Baths

1903:Ariston Hotel Raid

Diagram of Ariston Hotel made by NYPD before raid of 1903. Highlighted are the common rooms where suspected orgies took place, and private baths for partners.

26 arrested 12 of which were on

charges of sodomy 7 men incurred 4-20 years in prison

Cooks Turkish Baths (New York, 1930s)

Art depicting YMCA private culture

Mixed signals, multiple meanings: "YMCA Locker Room." Paul Cadmus, 1933

New York : 1950s

J. Therrien was a gay office manager of YMCA. Claimed it was because of the McCarthy Era after WWII that made it very difficult to have sex there. Claims he redirected clients to bathhouses.

United States: 1960s-70s

Homosexual

Baths went from discrete to openly discussed Growing acceptance might have lead to more Fantasy/ Fetish appeal.

Fantasy Environments seen more toward the late 1970s.

1976: Consenting Adult Sex Bill

State representative Willie Browns bill

Passed Consenting Adult Sex in private locations. Considered a big Californian success for homosexuals private rights.

1978: Raid after Browns bill

Bill of acceptance tested w/ arrests dismissed

from raid

Bath House Organization: California,1977

Club Baths of L.A. were established in

1997. Allowed access to more facilities.

Advertising of homosexual Bathhouses: 1979

Supposed sexual innuendo of billboard to advertise

business to Come! [San Francisco, CA.]

U.S. Opposition to Bath Houses

Hate crimes: Arson Closures: AIDs crisis
Also caused the

Shutdown of many baths by health departments. Before much was known about AIDs itself.

The Barracks fire, San Francisco: 1981

One of the largest fires in San Francisco since 1906 earthquake

Local news blamed it was bathhouse clients use of Nitrous inhalation.

However, it was later found to have been arson.

From Traditional to Modern

Even though we are in more modern times, some groups are still not accepting of bath houses. Pictured: Advertisement for bath house club from website who supports the sexual dichotomy (heterosexual way of life) within U.S.

Bath Houses Today

Even so, many bath houses are operating in much of the world today; some more discretely than others.

London Advertisement

Prague Bath House

Washington, D.C.

References
Bebout, Rick. (2002). Urban amenities; Erotic anxieties. Retrieved from http://www.rbebout.com/queen/2pconv.htm Labera, Peter. (2006). Ohio Health Officials Anticipate Spread of disease from Bathhouse Sex. Retrieved from http://americansfortruth.com/health-science/physicalhealth/ohio-health-officials-anticipate-spread-of-diseases-frombathhouse-sex.html Shifrin, Malcom. (2007). Victorian Turkish Baths. Retrieved from http://www.victorianturkishbath.org Gaytubs.com. http://gaytubs.com/ahistory.htm Retrieved June 21, 2010 . The History of Gay Bath Houses.