Nyc gay bath house
Continental Baths at the Ansonia Hotel
History
In the sdelayed s, Steve Ostrow, an entrepreneur and former opera singer, wanted to elevate the gay bathhouse trial from what were then seedy spaces to an enhanced destination as a health club and spa. At the time, homosexuality was illegal and most Recent York City LGBT bars were operated by the Mafia.
In , he leased the vacant 40,square-foot, multi-level basement space of the once lavish Ansonia Hotel (then rental apartments), which previously housed its Turkish Baths and swimming pool area. Ostrow predicted that his new venture would attract patrons away from other locations such as the well-established Everard Baths.
Ostrow initially created a space that he advertised as the recreation of the “glory of Ancient Rome.” It featured a disco dance floor, pool with cascading waterfall, sauna rooms, bunk beds in public areas, and little private rooms. When it first opened on September 12, , it contained 50 rooms and lockers and operated 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Over time, Ostrow added a cabaret and stag
What goes on inside a gay bathhouse?
Blalron41
I’ve been, once or twice, to a classy establishment downtown called the (one of my friends works there).
Upon entry, you may choose either a room or a locker. You are then issued a towel and some condoms. You go in and disrobe. At the , the lower floor is, indeed, a bathhouse: there is a large swimming pool, hot tub, showers, and a sauna. There is also a sort of drawing room with a TV and an Internet terminal, and a bar where health foods and light snacks are served. (In the basement is a gym; the place doubles as a health club.)
Damn, you gays have everything so straightforward. And another upside is that everyone in there is a potential sex partner. Even in a hypothetically heterosexual bathhouse, at least half the people there are competitors and you don’t want to see them naked.
Ethilrist42
Huh. I find myself wondering, act lesbians do the bath-house thing, or is it just gay guys?
iampunha43
Damn, you gays have everything so easy. And another upside is that everyone in there is a potential sex
Mt. Morris Baths
History
Located in the basement floor of the Lohengrin apartment house, the Mt. Morris Baths (originally the Mayer Baths) was the first commercial tenant of this room. The establishment, featuring Turkish and Russian baths, catered to a mostly Jewish clientele and in the late 19th century was also known as a hangout for police officers. By , the baths were renamed the Mt. Morris Baths, and by the s and s, African-American patrons began frequenting the baths reflecting changes in the demographics of the neighborhood.
When exactly it began to entice a predominantly male lover, African-American clientele is unknown, but it was mostly likely in the s during the Harlem Renaissance. In , Carl Van Vechten, patron of the Harlem Renaissance, noted in his diary that he had visited the baths, which at the day was known for its “rough trade.” In , Countee Cullen left his wife Yolande Du Bois for Harold Jackman, who he had allegedly met at the baths. Lincoln Kirstein characterized the baths as “a rendezvous” for “notorious homosexuals, deviated p
The movement to revive the classic bathhouse spirit in the US started in San Francisco – in spite of, or perhaps because of, the truth that bathhouses had not existed there since the city’s public health director notoriously ordered most of them to be closed in , with the rest following suit thereafter. In , DJ Bus Station John began decorating tiny, gritty dive lock Aunt Charlie’s with senior bathhouse signs and pictures from vintage gay porn magazines for his weekly party, The Tubesteak Connection. He limited his tune to the bathhouse era heyday, mainly , much of his vinyl inherited or sourced from homosexual men who had died from AIDS. The designation “bathhouse disco” got attached to his style, and his parties now tug visitors from around the globe. Along with male lover London DJ quartet Horse Meat Disco, whose famous excavations of the disco sound brought a wave of old school charm to larger dancefloors, the bathhouse disco movement encouraged a wave of fledgling gay crews in cities across the US to embrace the pre-AIDS past.
While many of these “new queer underground” crews forego a purely bath