On Jan 27, 2005, at 10:44 AM, Dubin, Elisabeth wrote:
Let's say I am a person who really believes that there should be a gigantic public bathhouse in Clark Park for all to use. Don't I have the right to self-select myself to campaign for this? And if I get a group of like-minded people together to enact change, don't we have the right as a group to work towards out goals? We aren't elected officials, so we are not obligated to reflect the views of anyone but ourselves.
Actually, there *was* a movement to get the Rec Department to start building public bathhouses in parks. While Boston, New York, Baltimore, and Chicago *did* build indoor bathhouses, Philadelphia was too cheap for that and just built swimming pools. There were certainly no servants with grapes.
There were a number of quasi-public baths, including ones built by a "Public Baths Association" in Germantown (designed by Cope & Stewardson), and near 4th and South (by Furness and Evans). There was also the "Western Soup Society Public Baths" at 16th and South. (I think the "Western Soup Society" had the name because it started out as a soup kitchen, but by that point, it was a settlement house connected with the Christian Association at Penn). Chicago had the charmingly named Free Bath and Sanitary League.
See Marilyn Thornton Williams. *Washing The Great Unwashed: PublicBaths in Urban America,1840-1920*. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1991.
You would of course have the right and social obligation to form a counter-group, called something like "Neighbors Against Sweaty McBathhouseification" or something.
No, that's the *private* bathhouse that Penn is evicting the Cinemagic to build. They'll have servants with *peeled* grapes. No doubt Ross Bender can tell you all about it.
Daniel
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