Baruch Playground

You are standing at a site that began as a radical medical intervention against the disease-ridden slums of the late nineteenth century. In eighteen eighty-nine, Dr. Simon Baruch, a former Confederate Army surgeon, used a New York Times editorial to demand public bathhouses, arguing that the citys rampant cholera and typhoid outbreaks were caused by a lack of basic hygiene. He faced intense skepticism from city leaders who mocked the idea by claiming people would not bathe, but he successfully forced the city to pass legislation mandating public bathhouses. This playground stands on the exact spot where New York City opened its first free public bathhouse in nineteen hundred and one.