Imagine wanting to swim in Manhattan's East River. Imagine so many people wanting to do this that a big bath house was built right at the docks. Hard to picture, isn't it? Yet here is proof that such a thing existed, back in 1870.These baths, at the foot of 5th Street, were opened in 1870 along with North River baths at the foot of Charles Street, also in Manhattan. The Times noted that several thousand people came to swim every day, including on opening day several hundred street urchins, who tormented passersby with taunts and "insulting language."
There were public swimming baths at several points in Manhattan, including a grand Natatorium at 66th Street and the East River. There, in 1874, a great "swimming entertainment" was held - mens' and ladies' races from 66th Street to Blackwell's Island. This was followed by one of the male racers, Mr. J.B. Johnson, putting on a show in one of the "floating baths" (a sort of enclosed pool, I suppose) in which he smoked a cigar and drank milk underwater.
There were separate swimming times for ladies and gentlemen, and these river baths were packed throughout the hot summer months. Races were held often, and the details of these are so amusing and interesting that I will come back to this topic in the summer and share some of the best of them.
Both the East and North River bathhouses were condemned soon after 1912, by which year the Board of Health was extremely worried about the water pollution. Yet people did not want to see the end of the bathhouses, because they were the only places where the poor and working classes could swim and cool off for free. Fortunately, by 1911, public swimming pools were beginning to appear in the city's working class neighborhoods, such as the Asser Levy Baths at 23rd Street and Recreation Center 59 at West 60th Street.
[Image from NYPL.]
And next at the Dime Museum: Madame Phebe's Unlucky Star, the story of a Brooklyn fortune teller and the client she wished she had never met...
"The Baths On Sunday," New York Times, July 11, 1870, p. 3.
"Swimming Extraordinary," New York Times, September 25, 1874, p. 2.
"River Bathhouse Soon to be Ended," New York Times, June 29, 1912, p. 13.
10 comments:
I think we need to resurrect the term "street urchin." In fact, I'm curious about its origins and will have to look into it later today ...
It *is* very difficult to picture anyone swimming in the East River (and I doubt it was squeaky-clean even in 1870), but it clearly served a need.
Wonderful post. I can imagine a certain lady finding a clue at the baths in 1896...
Crazy. I can imagine that the East River wasn't TOO dirty in 1870, but when the Industrial Revolution kicked in, I'm sure it got pretty disgusting in a hurry!
Love it!
Can picture the grubby little street urchins calling the bathers dreadful names like "fop" or "dandy" lol.
Jennifer - I was thinking the same thing about the word rapscallion, which I was using (why? cannot remember) the other day...there are some very good words that need to be used more, urchin (and rapscallion) among them.
Tina - Oh, yes, absolutely! Every post I do here is supposed to be helping me with that lady ;)
mike - I agree, I don't think it was all that clean even in the 1870s...
You know what I'd like? A collected book of your posts on NYC with maps! That would be so cool! I could spend weeks wandering around New York with you for company, it would be such fun!
Just the idea of swimming in the river gives me chills. As another poster said, I can't imagine it was all that clean in the early 1900's. I do find it interesting that ladies and gentlemen had different bathing times. It would be interesting to see a post on bathing costumes of the period and how we got from then to now.
My old man caught malaria as a kid (1930s)swimming from the Queens side to dive off anchored banana barges. In the 50s, although we never swam in the river, I remember fishing there despite the condoms and feces that often floated in the diesel sheen.
Richard - Oh, that is one of the many books I would love to write - I was thinking of a true-crime one, too. I am keen to investigate the family Victorian-true-crime (the Gold Street Murder, which I've written about but not in the detail I'd like). I always feel a little bit bogus, not living in NYC anymore, though.
Gargantua - Yes, that is a great idea. Maybe I will write about bathing costumes in the summer. There were tons of swimming exhibitions and race events at these river baths - and it sounds like people really had a blast, too.
Doctor Faustroll - Malaria! I am not surprised, though I am too (if you know what I mean). My dad swam at Coney Island in the 30s but I think it was cleaner there. I will have to ask him. Did your dad swim at Rockaway?
That's amazing! It's sad that the bodies of water around NYC are just not clean enough for bathing. How times have changed. It would be nice to take a short trip on the subway and jump in the water on a hot Summer day. :-). Great post.
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