When and Why Did Public Bathhouses Become Popular?

The New-York Historical Society and NYC Media, the official network of the City of New York, have partnered to produce a special series of one minute videos that feature the staff of the New York Historical Society as they answer some of the most captivating questions ever posed to them about the City's fascinating and unique history.
When and Why Did Public Bathhouses Become Popular?
In the nineteenth century, tenements did not have adequate bathrooms, and commercial bathhouses were out of reach for the city's poor. In 1851, the first public bathhouse opened on Mott Street. In 1901, the city's first free, year-round bathhouse opened on Rivington Street. Some bathhouses became meeting places for gay men, and others remain popular for cultural or religious reasons to this day.

[@NoPlaceLikeCheese]

That illustration you're using is anachronistic. They didn't wear bathing suits, they bathed and swam nude.

[@DaleGribble-q3c]

what ruined it that the old guys went in smothered them and they quit going