This building was built between 1904 and 1905 and designed by prominent architect Arnold W. Brunner in the neo-Italian Renaissance style. The bath (as well as the other thirteen City-operated public baths opened between 1901 and 1914) was the result of hard-fought efforts made by progressive reformers beginning in 1840s New York that gained momentum in the last quarter of the nineteenth century when charitable organizations opened public baths for a small fee on the Lower East Side.