viragette

Today I drove past the facade of a public bath house / swimming pool in downtown Seattle. Two disconnected outer walls are all that remain - left standing to decorate the first floor of new high rise apartments for Frazier-types. The remaining facade is white marble and tile, with ornate decoration framing huge half-circle-topped doors. I’ve heard that at the bath-house in the 1940s they used to open all the doors wide on a summer day. After the pool was no longer used, the building became a church. My mother worked nearby, and she, my brother and I used to imagine that the congregation sat in the empty swimming pool - and the preacher stood on the diving board.