New national bathhouse survey.

[SoCalBBversbttm]

Sorry Palm Springs club is Club 541.

[BootmanLA]

On 2/18/2024 at 3:35 PM, KylerIsTrash said:

It is a shame local politics prevent new licenses for bathhouses in most places in the US. Existing licenses have to be handed down from owner to owner. If there’s not a buyer when the establishment closes then it’s lost forever. I think a lot of this happened during the pandemic.
Does anyone know if there are cities where new bathhouses can open? I know they come with challenges for the city but they are an integral part of gay culture. After all, we are a community founded on sex. It is the single common factor that unites all of us. 

I would argue that bathhouses are an integral part of our *history* but not necessarily integral to our *culture*. Even at their peak, the vast majority of gay men never set foot in one, and yet gaydom carried on. I'm not opposed to bathhouses existing, even flourishing, but government regulations are only one part of the reason they closed down. At one time, for a lot of closeted gays, they were the only option (you'd go there, meet others (some closeted, some not) and have sex, then go back to an entirely separate world. That's much less common in the parts of the country (essentially, big cities) where bathhouses once existed more commonly. You still have that closet/rest of the world split in rural and small town areas, but those areas couldn't support a bathhouse at all.

And I'd argue that we're not founded on "sex" but on "sexual attraction" - the kind of person you're attracted to, regardless of whether sex ever enters into it. You can be gay without ever having had sex. You can be straight without ever having had sex. And you don't become "formerly gay" if you have to give up sex, for whatever reason. We recognize that people can know they're gay long before they're old enough to consent to sex.

(And I'd note that a significant portion of the people who patronized bathhouses in their heyday did not consider themselves part of any "gay" community. We can quibble over how they should identify themselves, but the fact is, they expressly did not consider themselves part of that community in any way.)

[meetme]

On 2/19/2024 at 10:52 AM, 50latinos said:

In Fort Lauderdale. We have:

1. Club Fort Lauderdale with modern and very impressive facilities
2. ClubHouse II, an older facility with older patrons open  in the same place for the last 48 years, can be fun.
3. Wilton Social Club, the newest bathhouse. Opened. just last year, I haven't been there yet

and

4. The infamous and always fun 321 Slammer which is not exactly a bathhouse but a gay sexorama extravaganza open 5 days a week.

No complains here.

Impressive that you had one open last year, and you have so many options.  Was one of them formerly a Club Baths?  Consider yourself fortunate, New York City has only one option and it always feels on the verge of closing.  I remember swimming naked in an outdoor pool at some club in Florida. It was great.

[50latinos]

3 minutes ago, meetme said:

Impressive that you had one open last year, and you have so many options.  Was one of them formerly a Club Baths?  Consider yourself fortunate, New York City has only one option and it always feels on the verge of closing.  I remember swimming naked in an outdoor pool at some club in Florida. It was great.

Club Bath may have been before my time but yes, we have a serious case of embarrassment of riches here in the FLL area.

I suspect that your memory is from Club Fort Lauderdale. It has always been an impressive facility but after the extensive remodeling from a few years back it is probably one of the best in. the world.

I you drive about 20+ miles south Miami also has Club Aqua. I've never been but I've heard that it can have some interesting days  . . . if you are into latinos.

[meetme]

8 minutes ago, BootmanLA said:

I would argue that bathhouses are an integral part of our *history* but not necessarily integral to our *culture*. Even at their peak, the vast majority of gay men never set foot in one, and yet gaydom carried on. I'm not opposed to bathhouses existing, even flourishing, but government regulations are only one part of the reason they closed down. At one time, for a lot of closeted gays, they were the only option (you'd go there, meet others (some closeted, some not) and have sex, then go back to an entirely separate world. That's much less common in the parts of the country (essentially, big cities) where bathhouses once existed more commonly. You still have that closet/rest of the world split in rural and small town areas, but those areas couldn't support a bathhouse at all.

And I'd argue that we're not founded on "sex" but on "sexual attraction" - the kind of person you're attracted to, regardless of whether sex ever enters into it. You can be gay without ever having had sex. You can be straight without ever having had sex. And you don't become "formerly gay" if you have to give up sex, for whatever reason. We recognize that people can know they're gay long before they're old enough to consent to sex.

(And I'd note that a significant portion of the people who patronized bathhouses in their heyday did not consider themselves part of any "gay" community. We can quibble over how they should identify themselves, but the fact is, they expressly did not consider themselves part of that community in any way.)

Wow, a very argumentative response from Louisiana.  Could you just say if there are  clubs there without three paragraphs about why I’m asking the wrong way? I’ll guess there aren’t many venues in Louisiana.

[BootmanLA]

1 minute ago, meetme said:

Wow, a very argumentative response from Louisiana.  Could you just say if there are  clubs there without three paragraphs about why I’m asking the wrong way? I’ll guess there aren’t many venues in Louisiana.

First, if you'd read carefully, I was responding to a previous poster, not to you. I said NOTHING about the way you asked the question - which as far as I can tell is fine. I was arguing against the idea of bathhouses being essential to gay culture, not whether we should have them or support them now.

Second, no, there are no extant bathhouses in Louisiana. There were two in New Orleans, as recently as the mid-1990's, and one hung on into the early part of the 21st century. But I believe both finally succumbed to high rents (one was in our CBD, the other in the French Quarter; they opened when real estate in both was a lot cheaper, but they're the highest-dollar parts of the city now). 

[phukhole]

Palm Springs USED to have a bathhouse, but it closed ages (over 2 decades) ago.  PS now has a sex club (no showers/pool/hot  tub, so it's not a bathhouse).  Have yet to go, but it's definitely on my list.  They have several clothing-optional resorts with play spaces, so they're LIKE bathhouses.  San Diego used to have 5, but they all closed years ago except one (my least favorite of all of them - go figure).  There are a couple of groups that do private (invitation only parties), but that's as close to a sex club as you'll find in SD.  LA had several, but many closed as recently as COVID.  SF just passed a law rescinding the prohibition on them within the city, but I'm not sure when it goes into effect or how soon Steamworks is going to move into the city.   There used to be a HUGE one in Chicago - Man's Country. That was a fun place. Sketchy at times, but always guaranteed to be full of that one guy who could scratch your itch (whatever your flavor of itch).  They used to be plentiful across the country, but SO many of them have closed.  With the advent of the apps, the guys that used to go for no strings hookups can now just order in.  Being an older gay, I miss the thrill of the chase and the cruising that many young people today don't understand.

[jz48811]

Denver no longer has a bathhouse which is kind of hard to believe. Denver Swim Club closed during Covid and never re-opened. Then maybe a year ago Midtown Spa closed, building sold for redevelopment and likely a heck of a lot of money. 

[Guy4GuyCoSpgs]

I miss both of those bath houses.  I really do.  Here in Colorado Springs we have Club Buddies and they hose Cumunion once a month.

[PozBearWI]

At least here in Wisconsin; I sort of view bookstores and bathhouses in the same context; paid places you can go have anonymous sex with less police interference than parks, rest stops, etc.  I am unware any remain anywhere in Wisconsin.  To some extent this is social pressure, a subset of that being disinterest.  Meeting places for men wanting sex with men have shifted to online.  Even Gay Bars have thinned out considerably here.  

Honestly I really miss that form of meeting other guys.  Online comes often with filters so that one starts by limiting to specific attributes before the first "hi".  Physically we didn't have that "dossier" on the guy we saw across the room; and thus we had to learn to meet with and get to know each other before we discovered he was a closet axe murderer.  🙂  TBH I chose that reference as it is I hope the worst case scenario.  But on the plus side; we got to know each other by conversation rather than profiles.  In my opinion this is one very influential cause of much of our social polarization.  

[NWUSHorny]

12 hours ago, jz48811 said:

Denver no longer has a bathhouse which is kind of hard to believe. Denver Swim Club closed during Covid and never re-opened. Then maybe a year ago Midtown Spa closed, building sold for redevelopment and likely a heck of a lot of money. 

 

41 minutes ago, Guy4GuyCoSpgs said:

I miss both of those bath houses.  I really do.  Here in Colorado Springs we have Club Buddies and they hose Cumunion once a month.

I find it hard to believe Denver can no longer support a bathhouse, they were always busy, and utilized for what I consider a bathhouse's intended purpose, fucking. Buddies, while in a smaller market has always seemed busier and better utilized for sex than any bathhouse in Portland or Seattle. Denver Swim Club was the 1st bathhouse I was ever in, and is the measure I still use for a great bathhouse, unfortunately few bathhouses have a regular clientele like they had, Midtown came close but they had a lot of customers in common.

[hntnhole]

On 2/18/2024 at 6:09 PM, meetme said:

This happened to Man’s Country in Chicago

If you will allow me to offer another reason for the inattention paid to Mans Country in Chicago?

Chuck and Dom were friends of ours.  When Dom had passed (one of the early victims of hiv), Chuck simply never recovered from the loss.  His interest in that fish store across the street waned, he just gradually lost interest in everything,  He even sold off the Eagle, which moved down the street to the corner, and never did get off the ground, despite the efforts of some of us to offer "good business advice" to the new owner.  

It was tragic to see how Chuck just gradually lost interest in anything.  He sold "the farm" up north, gradually sold off everything.  That's what happened to Man's Country.  The disrepair you mention was the byproduct of the loss of the love of his life.  And, fyi, he "took care" of all the guys that needed to be helped out before he passed.  

[meetme]

I had no idea how much history was behind Man’s Country in Chicago. I was last there in 2004 and suddenly that’s 20 years ago and even the building’s gone. Chicago is very lucky to have Steamworks but I enjoyed them both when i was last in that town.

[BBDreamer]

Steamworks in Berkeley, CA is still open with a line out the door on Sundays. In Portland, OR, HawksPDX opened in a new location. Haven't gone there, but they do have a website.

[fuckholedc]

On 2/20/2024 at 6:50 PM, phukhole said:

Palm Springs USED to have a bathhouse, but it closed ages (over 2 decades) ago. 

Please remind me what it was called.  I whored out there a couple of times and the first time I was a cumdump was there.