December
2010.
Tucked
away in a tightly-built neighborhood a few blocks southeast of City
Hall is one of Yonkers'
three remaining public bath houses. It was built as a refuge for
working class citizens whose
tenement-like housing did not have hot water, or perhaps had no
sufficient plumbing at all. The pool later served
as a recreational center for the citizens of Yonkers and shut down in
the late 1980s. After two decades of abandonment, this National
Register-listed building is
due to face the wrecking ball in January 2011.
Public Bath Number 1, said to be the first of its kind in the county, was built
in 1896 and was demolished in 1962 and replaced on its site, on present-day
Riverdale Avenue, by an apartment building called Philipse Towers. Public Bath
Number 2 still stands on Vineyard Avenue near the site of old Mulford Gardens. Dating to 1898, it became a church in
1969. The Mount Hebron
Apostolic Temple acquired the building and replaced the twelve showers
with pews for 125 congregants. Renaissance Revival Public Bath Number 3, the most
elaborately designed building, is a prominent sight on Nepperhan Avenue and
dates to 1909.
Bath house 2 never had a pool, but baths 3 and 4 had pools and showers. A New
York Times article from 1982 claimed that the charge of five cents provided a
towel, a bar of soap, and of course, a hot water shower. In the early 1980s, the
charge was 50 cents, though few people came just for the showers. By then, 4,700
people a month swam at the "Linden Street Pool," as it was locally
known, and about 3,000 over at Public Bath Number 3. Among those who benefited
from swimming at Public Bath 4 was Yonkers native Lea
Loveless Maurer, who later won an Olympic gold medal for the United
States swimming team in 1992.
German-born, Brooklyn raised architect O.J. Gette (1873-1955) designed Public
Bath Number 4. A Yonkers resident after 1915, Gette also designed the
Yonkers-Crestwood Branch Library and Birch Brook Hall and other apartment
buildings and homes. As a landscape architect, Gette designed the grounds of Mulford
Gardens. Gette designed both buildings and grounds for Tibbets
Brook Park and swimming pool.
The three surviving Yonkers Bathhouses were listed on the National Register of
Historic Places in 1985. The architectural and historical qualities that led to
Public Bath Number 4 being listed on the National Register are outlined on the website of the Westchester
County Historical Society. "Employing classical detailing
derived from Renaissance motifs to articulate its wall surfaces, the building’s
monumental façade and entrance surround are legacies of the "City
Beautiful" movement and reflect the increased attention that municipal
structures received during the first quarter of the 20th century.
Architecturally significant as one of the few building of its style and type
in Yonkers, its plan and configuration is also important as it represents the
final phase of bath house construction in both Yonkers and the nation.
Together the three extant public baths in Yonkers represent the evolution of
municipally sponsored bath houses in this country."
Many thanks to Andy McGuire from Capitol Demo for this tour in December 2010.
