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2: The first
Turkish bath in Manhattan, New York
In 1863, the addition of a Turkish bath to Dr Shepard's existing
two-year old Sanitorium in Brooklyn resulted in the opening of the first
Turkish baths establishment in the United States.
Two years later, in March 1865, the opening of the
first such establishment in Manhattan came about in the same manner. Dr
Martin L Holbrook's
New York Hygienic Institute at 13 Laight Street had already been in
existence for fifteen years when Holbrook, with Drs Eli P Miller and A
L Wood, decided to open a Turkish bath on the premises. It already
boasted a 'boarding department', while its 'cure department'
provided electric and vapour baths, the 'Swedish movement cure', the
water cure, the lifting cure, and magnetism.
As with many such establishments, the Turkish bath
soon became its main facility. It was said to be ‘the most complete baths that have yet been opened
in this country’, and was the first in the States to
introduce the processes of body wash and massage which, taken together,
were called by the Victorians ‘shampooing’.
Men
and women used the facilities on different days, Mrs Eli P Miller
MD supervising the "Ladies’ days". A
woman who took her first Turkish bath on a "Ladies’ day" at
Laight Street shortly after it opened, described her visit like this:
‘We
go down a flight of stairs, open a door to the right, and enter the Frigidarium
which, to translate to your unaccustomed ears, means a nice,
comfortable room, filled with easy chairs, and lined around with
little curtained apartments, which are dressing-rooms, ten in number.
‘You
enter one of these apartments, disrobe yourself of your attire, and
take upon you the bath garment, which is a single garment of
rectangular shape and Turkey-red hue, known as a
"Cummerbund". This is tied artistically over the right
shoulder, passing under the left one, and descends about to the knee;
thence you proceed to the next room—the Tepidarium.—As you
open the door the air within seems hot as an oven; but don’t shrink
back; you have not reached the hottest place yet; and in a
moment or two the sensation is very pleasant.
‘You
seat yourself on a softly cushioned lounge; an attendant wets your
head in cold water, and wraps your forehead in a wet towel, places a
tub of warm water at your feet, and having immersed your feet therein,
you lay your head back, fold your hands, and begin to feel at peace
with all the world, and with the soft light from the stained-glass
windows upon your eyes feel as if it would be the easiest thing in the
world to go to sleep.
‘Soon
the perspiration begins to start, and we are conducted by our
attendant from luxurious warmth to luxurious hotness, into what you
learn to be the Sudatorium, meaning, in a free translation, the
hot place. You are stretched upon a couch, a sheet thrown over you,
and the air envelops you like a liquid element, warm, delicious; and
there you lie till bathed in a profuse perspiration, and you are wet
with tears of sweat. Then you are laid upon the shampooing bench in
the middle of the room, and your limbs and body rubbed and kneaded
till all the old skin is gone, and every joint is limbered, while
pains and aches flee to parts unknown.
‘A
sponge bath of soap-suds and a shower-bath, the temperature gradually
lessening from warm to cool; a brisk rubbing with a cotton sheet, and
you go back to the Tepidarium, cool a little, and then to the Frigidarium,
where for the first time you feel that it deserves its name, from its
contrast to the hot air you have been in.
‘But
a good, motherly, soft, woollen blanket keeps you warm, and you sit in
one of the easy chairs till you feel ready to go back to the every-day
world once more, fresh with vigor and life.’
In 1867, Miller, Wood & Co published
a shortened version of Erasmus Wilson's The
Eastern, or Turkish bath… which had been edited by Dr Holbrook.
Less is
known about the later history of the baths. We do know, from an
advertising booklet published in 1870,
that the Institute claimed to have given 'over One Hundred Thousand
Baths' during its first five years. By this time, Dr Miller and his wife
had left the company, and a year later they opened a similar
establishment, Dr Miller's Turkish Baths, at 41 West Twenty-sixth
Street, New York.
It
is not known how long this establishment remained open, but by 1881 it was
known as the Hygienic Hotel and Turkish Bath Institute, was advertised as
a temperance establishment, and was now solely owned by Dr
Holbrook, who died in 1902. The baths may well have remained open for several years
to come.
© 2003-4 Malcolm Shifrin
1:
Dr Shepard and the first Turkish bath in the USA
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