The Bathhouses (1889—c.1915, 1903—1938)

Second Bathhouse, no later than 1913. No photographs of the first bathhouse have been found by this author as yet. Photo Credit: Beal, p. 279.

For the first few decades of the Michigan Agricultural College, the daily life of the student was, to put it mildly, rustic. The first dormitory buildings Saints’ Rest, Williams Hall, Wells Hall, and Abbot Hall had no indoor plumbing. They relied on surface wells for their water supply with, one presumes, conscripted freshmen to haul the water. These wells occasionally ran dry and were the source of a bout of typhoid fever that afflicted the College in 1886. The following year a proper artesian well solved the water supply problem but of course, no indoor plumbing meant no bathtubs, showers, or toilets. Washbasins, outhouse privies, and chamber pots were the norm. Until the mid-1890s the College also lacked the infrastructure it would have needed to support those improvements. As Professor Rolla C. Carpenter pointed out in his final annual report to the Board in 1890, “There are no sewers completed that would permit the use of water closets at the various dormitories.”[26th AR (1887), p. 25. 29th AR (1890), p. 58]

In 1889 the Board of Agriculture allocated $300 toward bathing facilities, provided that the students would raise a matching amount. Professor Kedzie—a medical doctor who understood well the benefits of good hygiene—provided the $300 match as a loan to the students, to be paid back through membership dues ($1 annually) and user fees (ten cents a visit for non-members) that also covered operating expenses and wages for a caretaker.[Kuhn, p. 157]

The resulting facility was functional but rudimentary at best, not surprising given the meager budget. A wooden building held a total of ten zinc tubs, set and plumbed by Carpenter and a crew of college staffers. Hot and cold water were piped from the boiler house (1884), which stood just to the west.[28th AR (1889), pp. 50–51. Lautner, p. 80]

Despite the minimal privacy of ten tubs together in one large room, after more than three decades without anything of the kind this must have seemed like the lap of luxury. Nevertheless as the College grew, the bathhouse quickly went from barely adequate to “totally unfit for use.” Kuhn, one of few historians to broach the subject, writes of it in an almost romanticized tone: “the line of waiting men sometimes grew so long that late-comers passed by for a plunge in the river.”[41st AR (1902), p. 22. Kuhn, p. 157]

Meanwhile, water closets were finally installed in Williams Hall, Wells Hall, and Abbot Hall in 1896, just in time for Abbot’s assignment to the newly formed Department of Domestic Science. In a mild understatement, President Snyder reported they “add greatly to the comfort of students.”[Minutes, 11 Dec 1894, p. 83. 35th AR (1896), p. 28]

Just ten years after the first bathhouse was built,* calls for its replacement were heard from all quarters, including Board of Agriculture president Thomas F. Marston, and a student petition containing more than 150 signatures. The Board in 1899 assured the student body that “the first matter to be taken up in the line of [new] buildings” would be a new bathhouse, but it was another three years before the Board took any action, during which time maintenance on the old bathhouse “practically ceased.” Finally in January 1902 the Board set newly appointed College Architect Edwyn Bowd to work on a design, and in a sign that the College’s finances had surely changed, allocated $18,000 toward its construction.[Minutes, 25 Jan 1899, p. 260; 14 Jun 1899, p. 319; 29 Jan 1902, p. 5; 30 Jan 1902, p. 7; 23 Sep 1902, p. 75]

The new bathhouse was one story tall, with brick walls and a flat roof, erected by contractors Chittenden & Skinner of Lansing and completed in 1903. It was placed just to the north of the Armory, which remained the principal indoor space for athletics and physical education, with a connecting passage between the buildings.* Containing a large “plunge bath” and at least a dozen shower stalls, it was designed (like its predecessor) for men only—the Women’s Building, completed two years earlier, had included toilet and bath rooms from the outset.[Minutes, 26 Mar 1902, p. 35; 23 Apr 1902, p. 38; 23 Jul 1902, pp. 71–73; 11 Nov 1902, pp. 88–93. 39th AR (1900), p. 24]

The main room of the second bathhouse with shower stalls and the large plunge bath (called “Swimming Pool – M.A.C.” in the undated photo). One showering Aggie has forgotten his towel. Photo Credit: M.S.U. Archives, retouched and reprinted in Kuhn, p. 198g.

After the new bathhouse was completed, the old bathhouse was converted for use as a paint shop. It does not appear in Newman’s 1915 map of campus, and in 1916 the entire area was overhauled in the wake of the Engineering Shops fire. Today the site of the first bathhouse is completely transformed: it stood mere feet behind (to the north of) the statue of John A. Hannah on the front lawn of the Hannah Administration Building.[Beal, p. 272. Lautner, p. 80. Newman, 1915]

In 1919, having been superceded by facilities in the new Gymnasium, the second bathhouse was converted into a practice hall for the band. It was torn down in 1938, along with the Armory, to clear the site for the Music Building.[MAC/MSC Record 24(15), 24 Jan 1919, p. 3; 44(1), Dec 1938, p. 5]

The second bathhouse, nestled between the Armory at left and Abbot Hall at right, undated photo circa 1903–1909. View is facing northwest, with a portion of the garden area now known as “Sleepy Hollow” in the foreground. Photo Credit: M.S.U. Archives.