Once a 1903 public bathhouse, now a pricey condo in Brooklyn
In the early 1900s, New York City launched a Progressive-era mission to build public bathhouses in tenement districts in Brooklyn and Manhattan. The effort was designed to improve the hygiene and offer heat relief for the so-called “great unwashed” who dwelled in cramped walkup flats that often lacked bathing facilities.
None of these public bathhouses are in use today. Some have been renovated into recreation centers; others converted into a variety of uses, including a photo studio in the East Village, offices in Midtown East, even a church on Allen Street. One sits in ruins behind public housing on the Lower East Side.
But I never imagined that a public bathhouse would be made over into high-end apartments until I took a walk down Huron Street in Greenpoint.
The four-story building at number 139 has undergone a facelift. But its Classical Revival style—the Doric columns, the wreaths carved into terra cotta panels—gave away its original use. The early 1900s architects who designed these bathhouses wanted them to be inspiring and uplifting, very much in line with the ethos of the City Beautiful movement popular in the era.
Where once 96 shower baths, six bathtubs, and later a pool helped cool off up to thousand neighborhood residents each day, according to a 1905 article in Brooklyn’s the Daily Standard Union newspaper, there are now nine separate apartments. A beautiful penthouse recently sold for more than $3 million.
After 56 years, the Huron Street Baths closed its doors in 1960, according to the Brooklyn Public Library. (Above, the baths in 1940.) It was the last of the five public baths built in Brooklyn.
The units at Bath Haus, as the condo calls itself, are pricey. But it’s all part of the longstanding New York tradition of reusing old buildings that have outlived their original purpose. If only they kept the original “public baths” signage, seen here in a 2013 image from the Brooklyn Relics blog.
[Second image: NYC Department of Records & Information Services Tax Photo, 1940]
