138th Street at 5th Avenue Public Bath
The location of this Harlem public bath is listed in Williams' book only by this street corner. There is nothing there now to clearly indicate where this facility was. The intersection is just to the East of the 138th Street (Madison Avenue) bridge across the Harlem River. The northwest corner is a post office, which may be of appropriate vintage but does not bear any markings or structural characteristics that would distinguish it as a former bathhouse. The northeast corner is a brutalist 1970's era apartment complex, and the southwest corner is a 1990's era (?) apartment building. A large, old Department of Health building is couple of blocks south on 5th Avenue, but is at an inappropriate address. The southeast corner is Riverton Houses, an urban-renewal-era project that is probably the best candidate for the former bathhouse location.
Riverton Houses was a "Separate But Equal" complex built for Negro residents by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company that was a companion to the all-white Stuyvesant Town complex simultaneously being built further downtown. The 1,232-unit development, which was built in 1947 and sold to a private partnership in 1976, has been the home of prominent African-Americans like former Mayor David Dinkins, former Army Secretary Clifford Alexander Jr. and Samuel Pierce Jr., the former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (reference)
138th Street at 5th Avenue Public Bath
138th Street at 5th Avenue Public Bath
138th Street at 5th Avenue Public Bath
138th Street at 5th Avenue Public Bath
138th Street at 5th Avenue Public Bath
138th Street at 5th Avenue Public Bath
138th Street at 5th Avenue Public Bath
138th Street at 5th Avenue Public Bath
138th Street at 5th Avenue Public Bath