Bath House Fleishhacker Pool and Bath House, San Francisco California
The major pool building is the bathhouse, a large Mediterranean Style structure with light stucco walls and green tiled hip roofs. The building is constructed of reinforced concrete and wood posts and beams. It is located centrally along the western side of the pool.
In elevation, the principal east face of the bathhouse facing the pool consists of a two-story central block with long, one-story wings on either side. Classically derived decorative detail is concentrated in the central block while the identical wings are very sparsely ornamented.
The central block is a two-story structure with a low green tiled hip roof and a central slab chimney. The facade consists of a ground floor with deep set vertically proportioned windows and a central threes-part entrance, and a second floor of large, nearly square windows. The openings in each floor are paired vertically and grouped in three units of three vertical pairs between slightly projecting ends. The ground floor consists of an Ionic Order of pilasters with a superstructure of Doric pilasters in the second story. The floors are divided by the entablature of the order, and the ends of the facade are framed in pairs of pilasters. The three-part entrance consists of three high openings with bracketed lintels. Each lintel is surmounted by a pair of dolphins on either side of a shell cartouche and underscored by a wave molding. The central entrance portal has been enclosed with a ticket booth and the central cartouche is hidden by a metal clock.
The identical one-story wings are linked visually to the central block by arches. Each wing consists of a long plain facade with tile coping and is pierced by small narrow windows. Each wing is entered by two simply cut, symmetrically placed, arched entrances with walled steps in front of each entrance.
The long narrow rear wing of the central section, with its angled ends, which fronts on the Great Highway, rests on a higher part of the sloping site. It contains a high basement at the level of the ground floor of the central block pierced by undecorated, vertically proportioned windows and a central door, and a top story of very large, almost square, industrial sash windows. These windows are separated by thin polygonal posts with simple capitals. The wall is crowned by a simple frieze under the green tiled hip roof. The main central block and this rear wing are joined by oblique walls.
The bath house is a smaller mirror image of the pool, essentially rectagular in shape, with a wider central section breaking out of the rectangle to the west. The central section is itself composed of two rectangular parts, a large rectangular block facing the pool and a narrower and slightly, taller section behind fronting on the Great Highway and constituting the major portion of the western protrusion of the building. This section is long and narrow with polygonal ends.
From the pool's esplanade, visitors saw what appeared to be three elaborate entrances. However, the central door was the front of a three-sided ticket booth and the two flanking entrances led to the women's waiting room on the south and men's waiting room on the north. These waiting rooms were identical in size with wood-beamed ceilings, red-tiled floors, three (4' x 7') windows looking out onto the pool and turnstiles in front of the entries to the north and south wings. Along the vest wall of each room, behind five glass windows (4' x 5'), staff collected valuables and gave out towels and suits. Shelves for storage were located behind this area.
A small office stood behind the ticket booth and two entrances that led to either the men's or women's suit rooms. These suit rooms contained laundry chutes, additional storage space and dumbwaiters. Stairs in the southwest corner of the women's suit room led to the basement laundry room.
The west half of the ground floor consisted of a large boy's locker room. Reached by a north exit from the men's waiting room, the boy's locker room had cement floors and wood-beamed ceilings. It contained two rows, separated by an eight-foot aisle, of 14 columns of lockers; two skywells (20' x 24') for light; and green tiled showers in the northwest and southwest corners.
The stairs from the women's suit room led to the wood-beamed, cemented floored laundry room. Three washers and an extractor were centrally located adjacent to the eastern wall. In addition, there were two laundry chutes, two dumbwaiters, and a workbench along the west wall.
A small workbench area and an exit door were situated at the southwest corner of the laundry room.
In the northwest corner, a sliding fire door led into the boiler room (24' x 18'). This room contained a large boiler (10' x 6') in the center, a heater in the northwest corner, and sump in the southwest corner.
On the second floor, patrons entered small lobbies from the north and south terraces. Steps led from these areas to a cafeteria which faced the pool, and to the upper dining room which was located in the narrow rear wing of the central section, at a higher elevation and faced the ocean. Both rooms featured tile flooring, wood beamed ceiling, and moldings around the windows, doors and walls.
The cafeteria consisted of a 30-foot counter along the western wall. The counter opened up into the lower kitchen. Two pipe rails paralleled the counter up to the cashier's table in the center. Natural lighting came from nine nearly square windows (8' x 6') with a pool view.
The east wall of the upper dining room contained a seven-foot soda fountain in the center which separated two seven-foot counters that opened up into the upper kitchen. Adjacent to this area, patrons sat at stools around a long and narrow 30-foot table. The west and the angled north and south walls consisted of nine large windows (8' x 10') which brought an unobstructed view of Ocean Beach.
The central area of the second floor was divided into east and west kitchens, two skywells, two public restrooms and a dishwashing room. The dishwashing room was to the north of the smaller (eastern) lower kitchen and public restrooms were located on either side of the area. The lower kitchen's west wall contained a large stove (33' x 4') in the center, and entrances to the upper kitchen at the north and south corners.
Lighted by three skylights (l6' x l4'), the upper kitchen contained two large refrigerators (each 8' x 6') and tables for food preparation. Skywalls (20' x. 24') were located behind its north and south walls. Exits included a door to the upper dining room and a staircase in the southwest corner which led to the kitchen storage room at the mezzanine landing, and the boy's locker room on the ground floor.
The north and south wings were of identical size (l56' x 48') with cement floors, green tiled restrooms and showers, wood-beamed ceilings, two exits to the esplanade, twenty-two skylights (6' x 9') and 11 small heavy opaque flassed windows (3' x 7') along the eastern wall.
The south, women's dressing room consisted of: Two rows, spaced eight feet apart, of 10 columns of lockers; a restroom, exit and showers in the southeast corner; a restroom in the northwest corner; and a restroom, first aid station, exit and room for female workers in the northeast corner.
The north, men's dressing room contained: Two rows, spaced eight feet apart, of 11 columns of lockers; a restroom in the northwest corner; a restroom, exit and showers in the northwest corner; and a room for male workers, lifeguard station, exit and restrooms in the southeast corner.
Two concession Stands are located on the pool property, one near each pedestrian underpass at the north and south ends of the pool. The stands are of identical design, except for the truncated rear of the south stand. The stands have green tiled hip roofs over light stucco walls pierced by large windows with counters. They are of wood frame construction and appear to date from the time of the construction of the pool and bath house.
The boiler house, located northeast of the pool, houses the circulation, heating and chlorinating equipment for the pool. The boiler house itself is a functional building designed to blend in appearance with the bathhouse and other nearby pool and zoo buildings. It is a flat-roofed structure attached to the convenience station which is on zoo property. The boiler house is a rectangular structure with a flat roof, light stucco walls, a simple cornice molding, and tiled coping. It is constructed of reinforced concrete.
