Draft:Pico-Burnside Baths
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Comment: Only addition is the 1995 article which is also LA Times. Avgeekamfot (talk) 10:44, 10 August 2026 (UTC)
Pico-Burnside Baths, now operating as City Spa & Health Center, is a Russian-style bathhouse in the Mid-City area of Los Angeles, California, located at 5325 West Pico Boulevard. The property has operated as a bathhouse since the mid-1950s and has been described by the Jewish Journal as "one of only a handful of old world saunas left in America."[1] In 2015, the Los Angeles Department of City Planning's SurveyLA historic-resources survey identified the property as significant under local criteria as the longtime location of Pico-Burnside Baths.[2]
History
[edit]A 1996 Los Angeles Times feature dates the opening of the bathhouse to 1955.[3]
SurveyLA records 1956 as the construction date of the property.[2]
The bathhouse developed within a tradition of communal steam bathing associated with European Jewish immigrant communities. The Jewish Journal described the shvitz as a place traditionally used by men to socialize, bond and bathe together.[4]
In 1989, the establishment was taken over by four brothers, David, Soli, Kambiz and Cameron Besharat. According to the Los Angeles Times, the brothers saved the property from demolition and renovated it, adding a gym and private screening room and introducing additional spa services.[3]
The establishment subsequently operated as City Spa & Health Center.[5]
Cultural role
[edit]The Los Angeles Times described the bathhouse as a gathering place for patrons of different ages and ethnic and religious backgrounds. A 1996 feature reported that conversations in Russian, Hebrew, Hungarian, German, Italian, French, Farsi and Armenian could be heard there and described political discussions among patrons of different backgrounds.[6] For most of its history, the bathhouse operated as a men-only establishment. According to the Los Angeles Times, women were first allowed to use the facility twice a week under a policy introduced around 1994.[6] The Jewish Journal reported in 1998 that the bathhouse admitted women on Monday and Wednesday nights and later added Saturday nights.[4] The traditional plaitza, a treatment involving wet eucalyptus branches, has also been documented at the bathhouse by the Los Angeles Times.[6][5]
Association with WET magazine
[edit]Pico-Burnside Baths has been associated with the origins of WET: The Magazine of Gourmet Bathing, founded by designer and writer Leonard Koren in 1976. Koren has identified a bathing event held at Pico-Burnside Baths as the inspiration for the magazine. In a 2012 interview with the Los Angeles Review of Books, Koren said that WET began as a result of a bath party at Pico-Burnside.[7] Koren also described the event in a memoir excerpt published by Design Observer.[8] A 2025 Los Angeles Times feature revisited Koren's association with the bathhouse and the role of the Pico-Burnside event in the development of WET.[9]
Historic-resource survey
[edit]In 2015, the Los Angeles Department of City Planning's SurveyLA program evaluated the property at 1374 South Burnside Avenue, also addressed as 5319–5325 West Pico Boulevard, as an individual historic resource within the Wilshire Community Plan Area. The survey assigned the property status code 5S3 and identified its significance as the founding and longtime location of Pico-Burnside Baths, which had served a Jewish clientele at the location since the 1950s. SurveyLA found that the property appeared to meet local historic-resource criteria while noting that it might not meet the significance thresholds for the National Register of Historic Places or California Register of Historical Resources.[2]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ↑ Strasser, Teresa (December 10, 1998). "Putting on the Shvitz". Jewish Journal. Retrieved August 10, 2026.
- 1 2 3 SurveyLA: Wilshire Community Plan Area, Individual Resources (PDF) (Report). Los Angeles Department of City Planning. January 26, 2015. p. 53. Retrieved August 10, 2026.
- 1 2 Jordan, Catherine (May 20, 1996). "Wizards of Aaahs". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 10, 2026.
- 1 2 Strasser, Teresa (December 10, 1998). "Putting on the Shvitz". Jewish Journal. Retrieved August 10, 2026.
- 1 2 Herman, Valli (April 14, 2005). "It's a Purifying Day in the Neighborhood". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 10, 2026.
- 1 2 3 Jordan, Catherine (May 20, 1996). "Wizards of Aaahs". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 10, 2026.
- ↑ Dailey, Meghan (May 25, 2012). "Where Everything's Thermal: A Conversation with Leonard Koren". Los Angeles Review of Books. Retrieved August 10, 2026.
- ↑ Koren, Leonard (November 12, 2012). "Making WET: The Magazine of Gourmet Bathing". Design Observer. Retrieved August 10, 2026.
- ↑ Wittich, Courtney (May 13, 2025). "On L.A. Spas and WET Magazine". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 10, 2026.
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