What Became of New York City's Ubiquitous Public Bathhouses?

New York City’s free public bath program: making the “Great Unwashed” feelso fresh and so clean since the late 19th century. Made less for recreation than to remedy New York’s public health plights at a time when a survey found there to be only one bathtub for every 79 families living on the Lower East Side, public bathhouses were a great boon to both to the bathers and those who had to inhale their newly cleansed B.O. Not to be confused with the abundance of Russian, Turkish, Korean and other baths to be found in the city today, these early structures were municipally funded public cleaning stations, if you will, where the city’s poorest could go to relax and luxuriate not for leisure but for hygiene’s sake. Below, explore nine of the most ornate and interesting structures that once held public baths, and what’s happened to them over the 40 years since most were decommissioned. For what is easily the most extensive history of these bastions of cleanliness online, check outMichael Minn’s website.
—Hannah Frishberg