St. Marks Baths

6 St Marks Place | East Village | built 1900

Open on the map6 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1913

    St. Marks Baths opens as a Turkish bathhouse for immigrants

    The St. Marks Baths opened at 6 St. Marks Place in 1913 as a Victorian-style Turkish bath for Russian-Jewish immigrants from the Lower East Side. In the 1950s it also began drawing gay patrons at night, and by the 1960s its clientele was exclusively gay.

    Source: Wikipedia

  2. 1979

    Bruce Mailman buys the baths and relaunches them as The New St. Marks Baths

    Bruce Mailman bought the building in 1979, refurbished it completely, and promoted it as the largest bathhouse in the country. The three floors held a swimming pool, a sauna, a steam room, and 162 rentable cubicles, behind a facade with minimal lettering reading "The New St. Marks" and "Six St. Marks Place." Vito Russo worked in the cafe, and Keith Haring was a regular.

    Source: NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project

  3. 1981

    Bruce Mailman buys the neighboring 8 St. Marks Place hoping to double the baths

    Two years after buying the bathhouse at 6 St. Marks Place, entrepreneur Bruce Mailman bought the next-door building at number 8 in 1981. He hoped to double the size of the New St. Marks Baths, which he claimed was already the largest bathhouse in the world. Mailman, who also founded the club The Saint, died of AIDS in 1994.

    “…in 1981 bought the neighboring 8 St. Marks with hopes of doubling the size…”

    Source: Wikipedia

  4. 1985

    City inspectors visit the New St. Marks Baths over a month in 1985

    Between November 2 and December 4, 1985, nine city inspectors visited the five-story New St. Marks Baths, and the city said they counted almost 50 acts of "unsafe sex" that involved over 80 men. The inspectors said they were handed a condom and a pamphlet titled "Your Health Is Our Concern" on entering. In its court papers the city called the baths' educational efforts "ineffective or disingenuous" because the activity happened regularly.

    Source: Internet Archive

  5. 1985

    December 7

    The city forces the New St. Marks Baths to close

    In 1985 the New York City Health Department ordered the closure of the city's bathhouses as AIDS spread. The New St. Marks Baths closed on December 7, 1985. Owner Bruce Mailman spent years fighting the closure in court and died of AIDS-related complications in 1994.

    Source: NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project

  6. 1986

    January 6

    A judge rules the city may close the New St. Marks Baths as a public nuisance

    On January 6, 1986, Justice Richard W. Wallach of State Supreme Court granted the city's motion to close the baths as a public nuisance and denied the owners' cross motion to dismiss. He relied on affidavits from city inspectors who visited on 14 separate days and described 49 acts of high-risk sexual activity, and on a state health regulation adopted in October 1985. The court held that privacy protections for sexual activity at home did not extend to commercial establishments.

    Source: biotech.law.lsu.edu

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