compiled by

Len Evans

http://geocities,com/gueroperro/GayChronicles

A Brief History of Baths & other Cruising Spots.

c522BC

Greece - The gymnasia and baths become so notorious that political reformers agitate to close them. One such reformer is Polycates of Samos.

1270

France - The poet Guillot cites the Rue Beaubourg in Paris as a cruising place for sodomites.

1292

France - There are 26 public baths in Paris, providing steam and hot water, even during the winter. They are closed to prostitutes, vagabonds, lepers, and men of bad repute.

1425

Italy - St Bernardino of Siena preaches against sodomy, and complains that "you cannot leave Tuscany without being reproached twelve times a day that here we never punish such a vice." In a number of sermons, between 1424-27, St Bernardino details the homosexual underworld of the Siena of his time. Favorite meeting places included taverns and pastry shops.

1514

Italy - Florence. Niccolo Machiavelli, in a letter to a friend, amusingly recounts the nocturnal exploits of another mutual friend in search a young man. Among the haunts mentioned were the Borgo Santo Apostolo, Calimala Francesca, and Il Tetto de'Pisani.

1706

Paris - Accourding a police report. Simon Langlois, created "an assembly for a kind of order of young men who want to enter it and who take the names of women, making marriages together ... they make these assemblies ordinarily in the Cabaret du Chaudron, rue St. Antoine ... where after having drunk to excess they commit the sin of sodomy; they make certain ceremonies for the reception of proselytes and they take oaths of fidelity to the Order." Bryant Ragan lists at least four other cafes whose names have survived. Pederasts also met on promenades - often in the same places that prostitutes frequented - and in parks where they could arrange assignations or, with enough privacy, have sex on the spot. Their sexual tastes ran from mutual masturbation to anal sex, although most claimed to dislike oral sex. Some said they hated women, but others were married.

1707

London - A number of men are convicted for sodomy after being entrapped by agents of the Societies of the Reformation of Manners. The Societies sent agents into known homosexual hangouts on London Bridge, and around the arcades of the Royal Exchange.

1709

London. Entrapment of homosexuals at the arcades of Covent Gardens, and at the public latrines in the Savoy and Temple. Three of the accused commit suicide in jail.

1726

London - Trial of homosexuals, and expose of homosexual resorts in London, among them Mother Clap's house in Field Lane, Holburn.

1889

London - The Cleveland Street Scandal, London. Involves a house of male prostitution and members of the British nobility, including Albert, who is the third in line to the throne. The Earl of Euston is rumored to have been arrested, and the names of Lords Henry, Somerset, Beaumont, Seaton and Dudley are mentioned in connection with the case.

1903.....

New York City - First recorded police raid on a gay bathhouse, the Ariston on West 55th Street. 78 were men caught in the raid, 26 were arrested. Twelve of the men were brought to trial on sodomy charges, and 7 men received sentences ranging from 4 to 20 years in prison. February 21, 1903.

1919

New York - The manager and nine customers of the Everard Turkish Baths were arrested. The scene replayed itself only a year later when fifteen men were arrested in a similar operation. January 5, 1919

1929

New York - Raid on the Lafayette Baths in New York City.

1933

U S - "The pansy men of the Nation---New York, Philadelphia, and San Francisco are just nuts about Turkish Bathing. Steam joints of the aforementioned cities are the gathering places of perverts...the clubhouses of joyboys on the make...and the ports of call for those despised parasites who pander to the desires of homosexual men...punks who will submit passively to the tainted caresses for the price of a drink or a pack of cigarettes." "Brevities," New York, November 23, 1933. [email protected]

1941

US - Gustave Beekman is charged with operating a house of male prostitution near the Brooklyn Naval Yard. In an affidavit Beekman states that the house was frequented by two Germans who questioned men there about military movements and that a U.S Senator, David I Walsh, chairman of the Senate Naval Affairs Committee also frequented the house. Beekman serves 21 years in Sing Sing prison, while the FBI claims to have cleared Walsh. The New York Post calls it a whitewash.

1954

San Francisco - In May 1954, a guide to San Francisco's gay bars and baths was printed and handed out at a meeting of the Mattachine Society…With the warning that it contained "Confidential and Unofficial" information, the mimeographed sheet listed Jack's Baths, the Club Baths on Turk, the Palace Baths on 3rd Street, and the San Francisco Baths on Ellis. ([email protected])

1950’s

Los Angeles - Joe Therrien, a gay office manager for the YMCA in the 1950's, recalled a time when gay men would flock to the "Y" to cruise the showers, but the mounting gay hatred that was sparked during the McCarthy Era made it increasingly difficult to have sexual encounters there. In fact, it wasn't long before the Los Angeles branch hired a security guard to patrol the showers and steam rooms. "That's when I began redirecting men to the bathhouses in town," said Joe Therrien. "I would tell them about a Turkish bathhouse on 4th Street in Los Angeles. Although it was not advertised as a gay bath, there was a lot of action going on there."

([email protected])

1962

Washinton DC - Park police arrest three members of the DC vice Squad in Lafayette Park.

1964

Washington D,C. Walter Jenkins caught in t-room, American Mental Health Foundation warns against hysteria......

"A detective posing as a customer observed several men engaged in "unnatural sex acts" in the Lincoln Baths and 33 persons, including eight employees, were arrested. Illinois is the one state in which the Model Penal Code provisions allowing private homosexuals is in force." (DRUM- 12/64)

Lincoln Baths "There were cubicle-rooms up & down long corridors and people were roaming up and down the hall draped in towels and sheets. The doors were usually half open. I was having a little fun when all at once I heard a loud whistle. Someone screamed. It's a raid."

We had to line up outside our room, and show our ID which was brought to us from the front desk. Then we were Told to dress. I thought I was going to get locked up... It took two hours for the police to finish the raid...Anyone caught in a room with another person was taken off to jail. I had been alone at the moment they blew in for the raid so I was released. Mr. Madam (c'50's)

1965

Deleware - the Delaware Sunday News announced that homosexuality is not a major problem in Delaware, although the article added "It is hard to find a young man who has entered the men's room of a metropolitan public rest area who has ever been approached in some way with certain proposals.."

Ohio - Using a one-way mirror police kept the men's room in Mansfield's town square under surveillance for two months, including making movies. Three men were indicted for sodomy. One was given a mandatory 1 to 20 year sentence. Defense arguments that the evidence was obtained by what constituted an unreasonable search was rejected by the Ohio courts, while the US Supreme Court refused to hear the case.

Pennsylvania - Thirty four men are arrested on charges of sodomy and solicitation in the State Street section of Harrisburg. The District Attorney promised to "rid our community of this infectious disease." The police were charged with using teenagers as decoys.

Washinton D.C. - Adopting a policy advocated by the homophile movement, the District of Columbia replaced plainclothes officers with uniform officers in public places frequented by homosexuals. There were 175 fewer arrests in 1965.

Jack Campbell and two partners opened their own bathhouse in Cleveland. According to an interview, Campbell had been impressed with the amenities offered at various San Francisco bathhouses, so he decided to open his own facility with "a better, cleaner atmosphere" than some of the sleazy places he had visited on the east coast. Thus, the Club Bath Chain was born, complete with amenities such as television rooms, vending machines, Jacuzzis, shag carpeting and wood paneling. As business boomed over the next year, Campbell and his partners soon decided to open another bathhouse, the Sixth City Sauna, followed in 1967 by another using the name The Club, in Toledo. By 1971 the Club chain included fourteen bathhouses across the United States, offering student discounts and special rates for men who arrived in pairs on "Buddy Nights."

[email protected]

1966

Memphis, TN - Alarmed at the number of young men who were selling their favors to men who had come before him recently, a Juvenile Court Judge ordered a special crew of probation officers to work with the juvenile squad in a crackdown. The most frequent place for complaints was Court Square. The Judge remarked , "That place is swarming with homosexuals."

1967

New York - a low budget movie was filmed at the St Marks Baths. It was called "Vapors/ The Drag Queen's Ball," and the film was a daring B & W feature about looking for love in New York's infamous St. Marks Baths, "an insane asylum for mad homosexuals". [email protected]

1968

Boston MA - A detective, a sergeant and seven patrolmen are assigned to investigate alleged immoral acts in Turkish baths and locker rooms in the south end.

Washington DC - FBI agents are assigned to police Federal Building bathrooms.

Columbus, OH - September. When parents lodged complaints that their teenage sons were ditching school to frequent Southview Park, police ended their policy of tolerating homosexual activity in the park. A weeks stakeout netted 24 arrests.

San Diego - Three weeks of police sweeps of Balboa Park and Beach areas results in the arrest of 75 men.

Covington, KY - A raid on the Riverview Health Club resulted in the arrest of 33 men on charges ranging from sodomy to disorderly conduct.

1969

Los Angeles - Police sweeps of Barnsdahl Park.

Los Angeles - 16 men arrested in raids on the Regency Baths.

San Diego - Police sweeps of Balboa Park. 135 arrests.

Atlanta, GA - City police sweep city parks with flash cameras. City Aldermen consider closing parks at night

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THE ARISTON BATHHOUSE (N/E CORNER OF 55TH B'WAY) In 1902, this Bathhouse located in the basement of the 12-storey Ariston Apartment Hotel had a predominately homosexual clientele. In early 1903 it's "BAD" reputation was known to the District Attorney, William Jerome, and as reported to the Governor, "(the Ariston Baths was)the resort of persons for the purpose of sodomy and that sodomy was regularly practiced here." A customer after paying $1 and checking his valuables, was assigned a private dressing room, and given a sheet to drape over his shoulder when he disrobed. It had a swimming pool, masseurs, manacurists, a small gymnasium, steam room & sauna. Men were quite open about their sexual activities here. And on frequent occassions, "overt homosexual activities" were witnessed by the police, in the dormitory and cooling rooms. In one cooling room police noted dozens of sexual encounters, some with more then two men. This room had no lights - it was only dimly illuminated from gaslight in the next-door palour. It was stated that one police officer "observed a 53 year old Irish pantryman have sex with NINE different men, most of whom indicated their sexual interest with gestures." This account was according to court papers. The Ariston Baths was raided on a Saturday night (2/21/1903) and

78 men were detained. Though the building is gone you can get an idea of what it looked like, the building on the south east corner of 55th and Broadway is its sister. (A GAY HISTORY TIMES SQUARE42ND ST)

(1888 - 1985)

The Everard Turkish Baths (sometimes referred to as the "Ever Hard Baths") served as a homosexual rendezvous for more than a half century, and was the longest-running gay oriented business in New York City. Originally a church, the Everard was converted into a bathhouse by the "prominent financier, brewer, and politician" James Everard, at a period in time when most of the dwellings in the city lacked adequate bathing facilities. For a one dollar admission fee, patrons could bathe, swim in the pool, or luxuriate in the steam room before retiring to the small cubicle (with a cot) that came with the admission price.Gay men started frequenting the Everard by World War I, and by the 1920's it had established itself as a homosexual but clandestine bathhouse. As the years progressed, the Everard's salacious reputation extended beyond New York City, as was evidenced by the fact that some patrons came from relatively far away

places, such as New Jersey, Philadelphia, Ohio, and even Europe. London offered "nothing compared to it," a Parisian friend told British actor Emlyn Williams, who paid a visit in 1927. Williams' description of the Everard bathhouse is as follows: "Up some stairs," Williams wrote, "at a desk, an ashen bored man in shirtsleeves produced a ledger crammed with illegible scrawls. I added mine, paid my dollar, was handed key, towel and robe, hung the key on my wrist and mounted to a large floor as big as a warehouse and as high: intersecting rows of 'private rooms,' each windowless cell dark except from a glimmer from above through wire-netting shredded with dust and containing a narrow workhouse bed." Williams went on to describe how he took off his clothes, donned the robe and stepped into the passageway to witness men walking to and fro, apparently cruising. He saw a man "stop at a door which was ajar, give it a gentle push and peer inside" as though he might have been seeking a sexual encounter. Williams also wrote about a rather hilarious scene at the Everard in which someone's false teeth came loose during an act of fellatio.

Interestingly enough, the Everard was rumored to have been owned by the Police Athletic League, which enhanced its reputation as being safe from police harassment. Nevertheless, there were raids on the Everard, such as the one carried out on January 5, 1919, in which the manager and nine customers were arrested. The scene replayed itself only a year later when fifteen men were arrested in a similar operation.

In 1977 a devastating four-alarm fire swept through the Everard

complex, leaving nine men dead and many others severely injured. [email protected]

THE PENN POST HOTEL/BATHS, 304 WEST 31ST STREET (AT EIGHTH AVENUE). In the basement of what was a rundown transient hotel, was the Penn Post Baths. During the 1920's it attracted a more assorted group of men then the nearbye Everard, mainly because of it's cheaper prices, and it's location across from Penn Station. It consisted of a large room filled with beds, and chairs. It also had a small steam room/shower. Because it didn't have any private rooms men would engage in sex openly through-out. (A GAY HISTORY TIMES SQUARE42ND ST)

The legendary St. Marks Baths, in Manhattan, was a good example of a bathhouse which made the transition from being a straight bath to an exclusively gay venue. Opened as a Jewish bathhouse by 1915, the St. Marks Russian and Turkish Baths catered mostly to businessmen in the area. Over the years, St. Marks became increasingly popular with residents of the surrounding neighborhood, and by the 1950's it served older Jewish men during the day and gay men at night. Sometime during the 1960's, it evolved into an exclusively gay bathhouse, although it was generally considered "unclean and uninviting" to some of the patrons, who eventually went elsewhere. But to those patrons with a proclivity to genuine sleaze, the St. Marks Baths was an aphrodisiac and a godsend. By the time the 1970's had rolled around, the aging bathhouse was already well-known for its hard-core S&M crowd, where "whippings and pot smoking" was the order of the day. Famed gay writer Edmund White put it this way: "After a horrifying fire

destroyed the original Everard baths and killed several of its patrons, the

heavy-sex crowd was without a home. The St. Marks filled that need. In place of the Everard's rotting marble, gummy tiles and terminal pool, the St. Marks substituted an unobtrusive, quietly masculine decor." White went on to say that the St. Marks had "no television, and disco music is confined to the front office and a back lounge, on the theory that nothing should compete with or mask the sounds of sex." [email protected]