Everard Baths

The Everard Baths or Everard Spa Turkish Bathhouse was a gay bathhouse at 28 West 28th Street in New York City that operated from 1888 to 1986. The venue occupied an adaptively reused church building and was the site of a deadly fire.

History

Everard Baths was a Turkish bath founded by financier James Everard in 1888 in a former church building, designed in a typical late-nineteenth-century Victorian Romanesque Revival architectural style. James Everard who operated the Everard brewery on 135th Street converted it to a bathhouse in 1888. Everard's bathhouse was intended for general health and fitness.J. Russiello, ''A Sympathetic Planning Hierarchy for Redundant Churches: A Comparison of Continued Use and Reuse in Denmark, England and the United States of America]'' (MSc Conservation of Historic Buildings, University of Bath, 2008), p.383.

On November 28, 1898, a soldier was found dead in his room at the baths and gas was suspected.

On January 5, 1919, the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice encouraged a police raid in which the manager and nine customers were arrested for lewd behavior. It was raided again in 1920 with 15 arrests.

It was patronized largely by homosexuals by the 1920s and became the community's preeminent social venue from the 1930s onward. It was patronized by gay men before the 1920s and by the 1930s had a reputation as "classiest, safest, and best known of the baths," eventually picking up the nickname "Everhard".

The entrance was lit by two green lamps, giving it, according to patrons, the appearance of a police precinct, and giving rise to speculation that it was owned for a period by the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association of the City of New York (a claim that was vehemently denied after patrons died in a 1977 fire).

Emlyn Williams described a visit in 1927:

:Up some stairs at a desk an ashen bored man in shirtsleeves produced a ledger crammed with illegible scrawls. I added mine, paid my dollar, was handed a 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 the glimmer from above through wire-netting shredded with dust and containing a narrow workhouse bed... e later hearda casual whisper, a sigh lighter than thistle-down, a smothered moan. Then appeasement: the snap of a lighter as two strangers sat back for a smoke and polite murmured small talk, such as they might exchange in a gym.

Among the documented patrons were Alfred Lunt, Clifton Webb, Noël Coward, Lorenz Hart, Truman Capote, Charles James, Gore Vidal and Rudolf Nureyev. Truman Capote and Ned Rorem wrote about their visits.

On May 25, 1977, nine patrons (ages 17 to 40) were killed in a fire: seven from smoke inhalation, one from respiratory burns, and one who had jumped from an upper floor. Contributing factors were the deteriorating conditions and the lack of sprinklers.Scott Bronstein, “4 New York Bathhouses Still Operate Under City’s Program of Inspections,” ''The New York Times'' (3 May 1987). Firefighters said they were thwarted in rescue efforts by paneling covering the windows. Between 80 and 100 patrons left the building; the indefinite number was because the club did not have registration at the time. Most of the victims were identified by friends rather than family. Accounts said costs were $5 for a locker or $7 for a cubicle ($6 and $9.25 on weekends).

Despite total destruction of the top two floors, the two floors were rebuilt, and the baths reopened. However, it was closed in April 1986 by New York City mayor Ed Koch during the city's campaign to close such venues during the AIDS epidemic.

Popular culture

Michael Rumaker wrote a book ''A Day and a Night at the Baths'', devoted totally to the baths.

The bath is described in the novels ''Dancer from the Dance'' by Andrew Holleran, '' Faggots'' by Larry Kramer, and ''Now Voyagers'' by James McCourt.

The bath is the subject of ''Goodbye Seventies'' by Todd Verow.

References

{{Portal bar, LGBT, New York City, Human sexuality

1888 establishments in New York (state)
May 1977 events in the United States
1986 disestablishments in New York (state)
Building fires in New York City
Buildings and structures in Manhattan
Burned buildings and structures in the United States
Churches in Manhattan
Closed churches in New York City
Former churches in New York (state)
Gay bathhouses in New York City
LGBT history in New York City
Romanesque Revival architecture in New York City
Commercial building fires