I miss Denver Swim Club + Midtown

[PozToxVersPig]

About an hour in to doing yardwork in the full sun at heat, I called it quits and decided to come inside.  I was drinking some water and checking messages and started thinking I was horny and briefly forgot/ignored the fact that DSC is closed.  The thought that went through my mind was, "oh it's a perfect day for DSC."  It's literally the perfect day for an afternoon at DSC...some pool time, some fucking, whatever.  I miss it.   I always thought the vibe there was really good and always had a good time.  I miss Midtown too, though slightly less than DSC. 🙂

Denver folks, do you think we'll ever have a bathhouse again?  If the Southpark dudes can renovate and rehab Casa Bonita, maybe some rich gay benefactor will do the same for DSC. 🙂

Has anyone been to the place in Colorado Springs?  I haven't.  It's a fucking trek to get there but might be going for something like Cumunion...

 

[viking8x6]

I loved that place, though I only get to Denver occasionally. I'm not sure why they went under; during the time I was a member they were very well run and had a good clientele, so it's possible that they simply didn't have the financial wherewithal to weather Covid. Given that the options in Denver are super limited right now, it would seem to be a good business opportunity for some enterprising people to provide a community service and make a decent profit at the same time.

[NWUSHorny]

DSC was the 1st bathhouse I went to, and set a standard few others can even come close to. I didn't quite know what to expect, but I fucked, got fucked and had a 3 way, all within my 1st half hour in a bathhouse, and had some kind of sex with more than 20 guys in the 4 hours I stayed that night. It unleashed my inner pig, that was a Thursday night, I went back both Friday and Saturday night. Midtowne was good to, but never quite measured up, I haven't been in more than 5 years but have had good times at Buddies in Colorado Springs too. I would give them a try. All of them are better than the long closed CCC, glad that wasn't my 1st bathhouse, if it had been I probably would have never gone back.

Edited July 3, 2023 by NWUSHorny

[willslc]

I loved the DSC, mostly when they had the cave. When I went in for the first time I told my self this where I going to get HIV. I made sure I did, I cannot remember how may POZ loads the took there. If I did not get fucked and loaded more than 10 time a visit it was a bad night. 

[willslc]

I was at the Swin Club one afternoon when the power went out. Most people left but I stayed. Hoe Loves the Dark. I ask the attendant if they were going to close. He told me if the closed the would not be allowed to reopen, due to something with the license with Aurora. Not sure if this was true, or why the are now close now or what. I guess  the saying is true. "All good things must come to an end" 

[donmacdnvr]

i miss the midtown  - the basement, after closing the metro, tracks, foxhole...i'd drpp by get sucked or ra some hole...love the GH area, to lube up anon raw meat until i got loaded...

[alwaysswallow]

It sounds like it was a lot of fun. Is there anywhere to play here anymore?

[NWUSHorny]

Has anyone been to Buddies in Colorado Springs recently? I haven't been in more than 5 years, it was a smaller venue than DSC, but similar vibe. Hopefully someone has and can report back as to whether or not it is still a very active fuck club.

[PozToxVersPig]

18 hours ago, NWUSHorny said:

Has anyone been to Buddies in Colorado Springs recently? I haven't been in more than 5 years, it was a smaller venue than DSC, but similar vibe. Hopefully someone has and can report back as to whether or not it is still a very active fuck club.

I have not and I don't know anyone personally that has, just a few folks I have chatted with.  It looks solid, but the commute is so far from Denver and I have no idea what the crowd is like or on which nights.  The thing I've contemplated is going for Cumunion since it's sponsored to test the waters.

19 hours ago, alwaysswallow said:

It sounds like it was a lot of fun. Is there anywhere to play here anymore?

All the bathhouses are gone.   Check out this thread about Glory Holes in Denver.  It's the closest we have to anything in Denver these days 😞

[xtc303den]

I'm really glad I stumbled upon this thread!  Thanks cumslut4play for starting it.🥰  I'm sure there are a great many guys who, like you, miss the DSC.  I absolutely do!  As a LONG-time resident of Colorado, who "lurked" among the various gay establishments since my freshman year in college, I feel there's quite a bit I can add to this conversation.  (Damn, that sounded all high and mighty, but it really wasn't meant that way.)  I guess I'm just an old gay slut who has (had?) frequented all these places, and would love to share what I know and remember about them.  I'm going to try to break up my comments into separate posts rather than make a single doctoral thesis length post.  LOL

On 7/17/2023 at 7:06 AM, cumslut4play said:

Check out this thread about Glory Holes in Denver.  It's the closest we have to anything in Denver these days 😞

First of all, It really made my day to see this post I started years ago about Glory Holes in Denver being linked as a resource for guys looking for somewhere to go fuck around now that Denver is a bathhouse desert.  Thanks cumslut4play for posting this as well.🤗

[xtc303den]

The Denver Swim Club was my home away from home for many years, and I find myself often (very often) missing it and wishing it could somehow be revived.  It wasn't my first bathhouse.  (That was one in Hannover, Germany when I was 20 years old.  Another story for another time.)  But it is the one by which I measure all other bathhouses.  The TWO swimming pools instantly sets it apart from virtually all other bathhouses in the US, at least the ones I've been to.  I agree with cumslut4play.  A hot sunny day was the perfect day for DSC.  That’s, what the DSC was built for!. 

Where else could the average gay slut attend a naked pool party, cool off with a swim, sunbathe nude, go inside and cool off with another swim, share a shower with several guys, get sweaty in the steam room, relax in the hot tub, watch porn privately in your room or publicly in the porn lounge, cruise multiple glory holes, grope around in the dark in the cave, have the opportunity to suck, fuck, or get fucked in any and all of those places, relax while watching Queer as Folk on the big screen TV, then do it all over again?  Plus, the facilities were always clean, or being cleaned, or being renovated.  They never nickel and dimed you with extra charges for whatnot.   The towels were free with no limits to how often you could exchange a used one for a fresh one.  Lube was free for the taking.  And something the DSC had that very few bathhouses provided, were facilities to clean out privately, including free hoses!

[xtc303den]

On 7/3/2023 at 12:47 PM, viking8x6 said:

I'm not sure why they went under; during the time I was a member they were very well run and had a good clientele, so it's possible that they simply didn't have the financial wherewithal to weather Covid.

 

On 7/7/2023 at 10:53 PM, willslc said:

He told me if the closed the would not be allowed to reopen, due to something with the license with Aurora. Not sure if this was true, or why the are now close now or what

The DSC tried to reopen during COVID with various precautions, but they got cited by the Denver Health Dept for violating COVID protocols.  That got them shut down.  The financial strain of the pandemic, not to mention the monkeypox scare, was too much for DSC.  I heard from a friend who's in the know, that someone made an offer to buy the property that was too good to pass up. 

I've heard the same explanation that the DSC attendant gave you about not being allowed to reopen once closed.  In fact, I've heard the same rule applies to adult book stores, but I don't know how accurate it is.  Any moratoriums or restrictions on when, where, or if a bathhouse can operate likely date back to the throes of the AIDS epidemic in the 80s and 90s.  The fact that Club Buddies in The Springs exists means there isn't a statewide ban, especially since I'm pretty sure it's only been around since the early 2000s.  If not the state, is it possible that all of the counties and/or cities in Metro Denver decided to ban new bathhouses?   I hope not.  Because a city the size of Denver really should have a bathhouse.  Heck, there was a time when Denver had FOUR bathhouses!  Keep and eye out for my next post to read more about that.

[NWUSHorny]

I guess I'm going to have to make that trip to Buddies and make the report. Colorado Springs is on my shortlist of cities I was thinking about relocating to, but close to 1,300 miles from where I live right now. DSC was the my 1st bathhouse, and almost my 2nd home for the next 8 years that I resided in Denver. DSC is my standard for a great bathhouse, so I am almost always disappointed by other bathhouses. The amount of fucking on Friday and Saturday nights, as well as Sunday afternoons was difficult to match almost anywhere else I'm familiar with. Even weekday evenings and nights, you were pretty much assured of finding a willing fuck partner in less than an hour. Denver Midtowne, is also in my great category, and Denver is a fairly small city, but with an abundance of horny men.

[xtc303den]

Yes, there was a time when Denver had FOUR bathhouses.  Of course, there was the Denver Swim Club.  But back then it was called Empire Spa.  The Midtowne Spa had a different name way back when as well.  It was known as The Zuni.  Those of you who have been around Denver for a while probably remember The Triple C.  Easily the darkest, seediest, nastiest (in both a good and bad way) bathhouse in Denver, it closed down a little more than a decade ago.  Between the Patrick Sullivan scandal (see note below), the raid and search of the entire club that followed, and the fact that it occupied about half a block of prime Downtown/LoDo real estate, the owners felt it was time to sell.  A six story luxury apartment complex now occupies the entire block.  Like the DSC and Midtowne Spa, The Triple C went by a slightly different name back then.  It started out as the Community Country Club, which then got shortened to CCC, and eventually it became The Triple C, or just The Trip.

But back in the day, there was yet another bathhouse in Denver that far surpassed any of the three that outlived it.  Some say it was the best bathhouse in the country at the time.  The Ballpark, a multi-level sexual extravaganza, was legendary!  It's possible that my impression of it at the age of 21, has ballooned out of proportion in the 35+ years since it closed, but I doubt it.  One article describes it as this:

Quote

Once upon a time, Denver’s legendary gay bathhouse stood on the corner of Broadway and Bayaud like an enchanted castle much like others around the world: seedy to palatial, where men meet men, finding lovers lasting decades or minutes.  A fairy tale come true, certainly for fairies.

The music was the first thing you noticed.  Somehow the DJ always knew what to play to get you hard and ready to fuck.  The Mack semi-truck cab in the basement complete with a sleeper section behind the driver's seat helped it bring the trucker fucker fantasy to life.  The hot tub, which could hold more than a dozen guys, was made to look like a natural stone pool.  The natural stone theme continued on to the adjacent steam room, fashioned to look like a cave so dark and steamy that you had to feel your way around until your hands found a rock hard cock among the faux stone walls.  But what really set the Ballpark apart from the average bathhouse, was the waterfall plunging from two stories above into the hot tub.  Imagine standing under a waterfall getting your cock sucked while warm water splashes over your head and cascades down your body.  

Having arrived in Denver the summer of 1985,  I had the opportunity to experience the Ballpark a few memorable times before it closed in June of 1986.  An excellent essay reflecting on the rise and fall and last few days of the storied bathhouse appeared in OUTFRONT magazine in 2016.  Written by house DJ turned author, Rick Kitzman, it can be found here: Lifted on the Wings of Fairies

 

Patrick Sullivan scandal:

Patrick Sullivan is a retired Arapahoe County Sheriff who was so well respected and considered such a bastion of law and order, that Arapahoe County chose to name its county jail after him.  Little did they know that one day Sullivan himself would become an inmate in the very jail that bore his name: the Patrick Sullivan Detention Center.  After his illustrious career, Sullivan started guiding and mentoring a number of young men, including a number of whom struggle with addiction.  Unfortunately Sullivan chose to use his influence and position of authority to take advantage of several of these young men and their addiction.  In December 2011, after a lengthy investigation and subsequent sting operation, Sullivan was arrested for exchanging meth for sex.  Sullivan was a regular at The Triple C, and quite possibly met and had sex with some of his victims there.  Among these was a charismatic, yet troubled young man by the name of Sean Moss, who at one point worked at The Triple C..  Sullivan had helped Sean Moss by bailing him out of jail and getting him a security job in Cherry Creek Schools.  Sean was found dead in the Platte River near Coors Field in January 2011.  Toxicology reports showed Sean had both meth and GHB in his system when he died.  Patrick Sullivan was reportedly with Sean the night before his death.  I was shocked and saddened to hear about Sean's death.  I had known him personally, although I hadn't talked to him in quite some time.  In the end, Sullivan plead guilty to the meth for sex charges and was sentenced to a month in jail.

[xtc303den]

On 7/16/2023 at 12:49 PM, NWUSHorny said:

Has anyone been to Buddies in Colorado Springs recently? I haven't been in more than 5 years, it was a smaller venue than DSC, but similar vibe. Hopefully someone has and can report back as to whether or not it is still a very active fuck club.

It's been a couple years since I visited Buddies.  It's TINY compared to DSC.  Six or seven rooms at most.  Probably 20 lockers.  Hot tub outside, steamroom, dry sauna I think, a couple play areas, a sling.  The thing I really like about Club Buddies is the fact that a few of the rooms have their own glory hole, with a little door to block it off when you want privacy.  I love glory holes, so that's a major perk for me.  I've only been there a couple times, but had fun both times.  I've really been meaning to get back down there soon.  

It's probably worth noting that Club Buddies shares a building with Club Q.  From what I understand, several Club Q patrons were able to make it into Club Buddies to escape the gunman who killed five people there.  It closed for a while after the shooting, but eventually reopened.  That's another reason I want to return, so I can in some small way support the community there.