Around the turn of the 20th Century, folks couldn't take baths and restrooms for granted. This advertisement was located at the Arthur Crocheron Barber Shop on Alabama Avenue. It seems that travelers often freshened up at local barber shops after arrival in town. There, they could pay to use the toilet or the soap or a towel! The sign now resides at the Old Depot Museum.
14 comments:
What fun!! I find things about the past so interesting!!! Imagine rocking up at the barber's for a bath - what a hoot - wonder if he'd wash your back for free!!!!
public baths are still very common in Budapest. But its rather a social event then a pure action for personal hygienia.
I was thrilled about thinking, you still have those baths, but no !
We had here public saunas, but not any more. Many people have their own sauna even in flats !
But when I was a child, I went once to a public sauna with my old aunt, who was living by herself and she did not have sauna.It was so exiting, a big sauna and quite strange women around. It´s a history now.
But we have the public swimming pools and there are also saunas!
Do you know our sauna culture, nothing to do with sex! We hate, that this word are used something like that in the foreign countries.
Sorry, I almost got agitated :)
Hi, so strange we nnot imagine that you could take a bath in such a place.....
However when we're going on holiday... what do we do?
We go camping!!!
Yeh aren't we crazy? There you have 'public baths - showers-toillets, and so on"
But thats not the same as this public baths, the feeling perhaps 'feels the same way'
Thank you all for commenting. When I saw this sign, I thought it kind of strange that people would go to the barber shop for a bath! But those were the days when streets were made of dirt, and there was no air conditioning on the train or the wagon or the horse. I guess if you had a business appointment, you went to the barber shop first to clean up!
Wow! This a great photo of a period in history! :)
Hi there. I am from Alabama too--not too far up the road from you actually. I have been to Selma a few times--you photograph that city beautifully.
I noticed something a little surprising about the photo. It looks like a woman in the tub with her breast exposed. It seems to me that that image would have been a little uncommon/risque around here then (and now)--our being the buckle of the Bible belt and all. Are you sure it was used in that barbershop??
Thank you all for your comments!
Spangle noticed the "woman" in the tub at the top of the sign and questions whether these public baths were really offered at a barber shop!
Well, Spangle, I re-checked the exhibit's description. (Yes, I took a photo that too!), and it states: "From: Arthur Crocheron Barber Shop, 1112 Alabama Ave., Selma, Ala., Turn of the Century Advertisement."
If I find out anything else about it, I will let you know!
I never take restrooms for granted ;-)))
This sign would not be out of place in many European countries even today!
The turn of which century (I'm teasing you)? :-))
Ah, if only things were still this econimical!
I love this kind of everyday people's history. Thanks for the post.
Superbe enseigne, tout un monde perdu, le temps des bains publics. ils en restent dans certain quartier de Paris.
Superb sign, a whole lost world, the time of the public baths. they remain about it in certain district of Paris.
During my student days in Paris, in the late '60s, I went to these public bath as a matter of routine. I wonder if they still have them in Paris today. I bet they still do. Lots of old apartments had no bath or even bathrooms. I don't think it's that easy to add them as an afterthought. May be some people living in Paris can chime in.
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