Public Bath House No. 6

A one-story bath house faced in textured tan brick and framed at the corners by light terra-cotta piers. A terra-cotta frieze runs across the top of the front, carved with fluted panels, rosettes and a central chevron motif under a scalloped coping. The men’s and women’s entrances sit at opposite ends, each in a terra-cotta surround with a stepped top and a small flat canopy over the door, with two multipane windows between them. The long side walls are plain red brick. Inside, wooden stall partitions line the corridors under wired-glass skylights, and a small cashier window remains by the entrance.

Public Bath House No. 6 was the last of six bath houses St. Louis built between 1907 and 1937 for residents of crowded neighborhoods without indoor plumbing. Albert Osburg designed it, and it was built in 1936–37 with Public Works Administration funds at a cost of $42,763. It opened in 1937 with separate entrances and facilities for men and women; a bath cost five cents for children and ten cents for adults, and the house served 170,000 patrons in its first full year. It was the last of the city bath houses to stay open, closing in 1965. The building was later used as warehouse and shop space, and the cashier cage just inside the front door survives.