Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-11-17
AS ONE WOMAN SEES IT
story Of How Philadelphia First Got
Public Baths Makes Inter
estlna Reading
By SARAH ID. LOWRIE


! on why the poor should be poor and the
| rich rich there was standing where the
starr Garden now is Il plastered- over
! mission building that had once been
| church. with q narrow three storied brick
| house next il that had long been tenement
| house and was just beginning to be a col
lege settlement. The dilapidated houses up
| and down the narrow street and crowdipg
the interlncing alleys were all miserable
tenements swarming with blacks and whites
| OF SO degraded a character that IL was
dangerous to 60 about after dusk without
| police protection.
a Presbyterian church on Broad street
supported the mission there, and block
or two of another abandoned church was
turned into yet another mission known then
as the Bedford Street Mission.
The main difference between the work of
| the two was that in summer the Bedford
Street Mission provided baths at specified
| hours for those who came. There were Ger
tain hours for children, certain nights for
women and girls, other and more frequent
nights for boys and men. The baths were
made of huge hogsheads or vats into which
the bathers stepped and either stood and
soaked or jumped up and down for given
number of minutes. Sometimes the boys
would stay longer than the specified time
and had TO he urged out by the flick Of
whipash by the japitor.
These baths were not open except in the
ular adjunct to the missions activities.
THE population about the Bedford Street
!. L Mission was Italian. changing to Jew
ish that of the other mission, where the
Starr Gardens now are. was co.orcd, chang
ing to italian. The shifting population
made any permanent work in the neighbor-
hood difficult: one never quite got to know
the men and women, but the children
swarmed over any one who stopped to speak
to them. 1t was this swarming that made
bath when you got home the first and
only thing rou thought Of.
At least that was my reaction from
settlement work and ''how the other half
lived" and stunning. Ny only quarrel
with the submerged tenth was that they
never submerged. and it only took little
looking about to see they could not sub
merge: there were no baths!
The city had some river swimming baths
open part Of the summer. there were the
Bedford Street Mission tanks. there were
perhaps two high priced Turkish baths, but
there were no public baths open all the year
round available for the ordinary man,
woman and child at any price.
T WAS very young and very indignant
L about it. but doubt il | could have done
more than si2Zlc myself out the subject
il my opposite neighbor at dinner one eve
ming had not taken an interest to some pur
pose. He happened to be the proprietor Of
the Evening Telegraph Barclay Warbur-
ton. and being n person who did not let
grass grow under his feet, he started his
reporters after copy on the whole subject.
with the result that he offered to collect
subscriptions for II public hathhouse il a
responsible board of directors could be found
who would build and run f.
There again We both IlisAt have come a
cropper, for we were both inexperienced in
the ways Of organizations. both philan-
thrODlc civic and had nOf thp alirbtpgt
conception as to what public bath should |
be like inside or out. II was just there
that third person came to our rescue in
the person of Franklin Kirkbrde. young
like ourselves but experienced both in organ
izing and in building.
There remained, therefore, one other
problem to solve. viz. to persuade enough
responsible persons that the public would
battle gladly If given the opportunity, mud
would pay for the baths. We found eight
persundable men and won:,n. They we're:
Eugene Delano, Charles Briney, Char
lcmagne Tower, Mrs. William Hunt. MIRA.
John Sparhawk Jones, Mrs. Perot Dulles.
DR.. Lawrence Smith, the Rev. Walter
LOwrip, who with our three selves made the
first board Of trustees.
After that it was plain sailing That is
Mr.. Warburton collected the money
100000 for the public bathhouSe--S0O,O 900
in all. Mr.. Kirkbrde did the planning and
organizing, and the rest OF US cheercd on
the enterprise and assured ourselves and
all our little public that the baths would be
used once they were built. Sometimes we
had horrid doubts. especially in cold
weather.
After deep calculation it was decided that
the fee for bath with a cake of soap and
towel included the use of the dressing room
FOR twenty minutes and n shower with hot
and cold water for ten minutes would be five
Cents-"the price of glass Of beer" as
we then put it,
The uuagtinn IN u,haf thot
pay was not considered just at Grst-we
hoped it would eventually pay-the point
was not to give the baths for nothing
We wished our patrons to be our patrons,
not our benetciarieS and to support the Ell.
tcrprise because it was good business for
them.
From the first very little was made in
the neighbOrhood of the bath house being
built as a philanthropy. 1t was to the
dwcllcrs near Gaskill and Leithgow streets
simply a public bath house which presum.
ably charged what would pay its builders
an interest on the capital invested.
AS consequence. although free baths
were given. the place had from the very
first a purely business aspect, and our re-
lations with our patrons we're those OF pro.
prict0rs and customers.
A ND the plan worked. Each new bath
"A house has had to be built from partially
donated funds, but each pays and more
than pays lts running expenses. Which Is
what any college or hospital can scarcely
say for itself.
No attempt was made to enlarge the scope
Of the enterprise beyond that Of its original
plan, viz, to provide baths for those who
wished baths at reasonable rate every
day and evening Of every year in as many
ncighborhoods Of the city As our building
funds would permit.
And since it was strictly busness--col-
lectinG money, investing money, paying out
money, receiving money--the personnel OF
the hoard gradually changed TO comprehend
only business men. Mr.. Edward Smith sue
ceeded Mr.. Delano as president when the
latter went to New York, and on Mr..
Smiths death Mr.. George Harrison sue
ceeded to the presidency.
The board OF trustees today consists Of:
George Harl lson, G. s. Newhall, d. II.
Warburton, Herbert i. Clark, Charlton
YarnalI, 4. Williams Roberts, A. V. Nor
ton. d.. Il. Marte. Charles Mhenler Alhert