I came along too late to experience any of the huge bath houses that dotted the Californian coastline, which is a shame because I’d love to have seen at least one of them. This was the bath house at Redondo Beach, which was one of three buildings that lined the seashore in the first part of the 20^th century. The complex featured an auditorium/theater, a casino (this is back when casino simply meant a building used for social amusement), a dance hall, as well as the largest indoor saltwater heated pool in the world known as “the Plunge.” The project was developed by Henry Huntington to encourage use on his vast Red Car streetcar network. I guess his motto was “Give them a place to go to and they will ride.” I certainly would have.

That tall chimney is part of the system which provided heat from large boilers though an underground system of pipes from the Pacific Light and Power’s steam plant, which was used to heat the swimming pool – it was big enough to accommodate 1000 swimmers!