New St. Marks Baths

The New St. Marks Baths

Address	6 St. Marks Place New York, N.Y., United States
Type	Sauna
Genre(s)	Gay bathhouse
Opened	1913
Renovated	1979
Closed	1985
Owner	Bruce Mailman
Former name(s)	The Saint Marks Russian and Turkish Baths

Site of the bathhouse in 2009 after being extensively renovated for Kim's Video

The New St Marks Baths promotional matchbox

The New St. Marks Baths was a gay bathhouse operated by Bruce Mailman at 6 St. Marks Place in the East Village from 1979 to 1985. It claimed to be the largest gay bath house in the world.^[1][2]

History

A plaque on the building read "On this site stood the winter residence from 1834-1836 and the last New York City home of the novelist James Fenimore Cooper." ^[3]

The Saint Marks Russian and Turkish Baths opened in the location in 1913. Through the 1950s it operated as a turkish bath catering to immigrants on New York's Lower East Side. In the 1950s it began to have a homosexual clientele at night. In the 1960s it became exclusively gay.^[4]

In 1979 Mailman refurbished the baths and gave its new name. Business prospered so that in 1981 he bought the neighboring building 8 St. Marks Place with plans to expand.^[5]

It was described as a sex factory with men walking floor to floor. Music was played on the first floor common areas, but on the top three floors were cubicles where no music was permitted, so that the only sound would be men having sex.^[6]

In 1980 Mailman opened The Saint in the former Fillmore East building.

The AIDS epidemic caused some activists such as Larry Kramer to urge its closing. In October 1985 New York State Sanitary Code (10 NYCRR) § 24.2, authorized New York City to close any facilities "in which high risk sexual activity takes place." On December 9, 1985 the City began the process of closing the baths.^[7]

Mailman died of AIDS-related illness on June 11, 1994.^[8]

References

1. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJq3JorOWXU
2. ^ Gay Tubs
3. ^ Gross, Jane (14 October 1985). "Bathhouses Reflect Aids Concerns". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1985/10/14/nyregion/bathhouses-reflect-aids-concerns.html. Retrieved 2010-01-4. 
4. ^ Leap, William (1999). Public sex gay space. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0231106912. 
5. ^ Moore, Patrick (2004). Beyond shame: reclaiming the abandoned history of radical gay sexuality. Beacon Press. ISBN 0807079561. 
6. ^ "News: Playgirl, China, Brokeback, McGreevey, Amsterdam, Facebook". Towleroad.com. http://www.towleroad.com/2008/08/brokeback-big-b.html. Retrieved 2009-11-18. 
7. ^ "Court Upholds Power to Close Gay Bathhouses - City of New York v New St. Mark's Baths, 130 Misc. 2d 911, 497 N.Y.S.2d 979 (1986)". Biotech.law.lsu.edu. http://biotech.law.lsu.edu/cases/STDs/St_marks_I.htm. Retrieved 2009-11-18. 
8. ^ "Bruce Mailman, 55, Owner of Businesses In the East Village". New York Times. 12 June 1994. http://www.nytimes.com/1994/06/12/obituaries/bruce-mailman-55-owner-of-businesses-in-the-east-village.html. Retrieved 2009-09-05.