and not, like nineteenth–century parks, places of passive contemplation.¹⁷ The publicly–sponsored pools in bath houses fulfilled both the bath house advocates program as well as the “play” leaders’ demands for supervised, year-round recreational facilities.

By the time Bath House #4 was built in 1925 at 138 Linden Street, swimming pools were considered essential features of bath houses and the large amount of space the pool occupies at Bath House #4 as well as the detailing lavished on it and its room reflect the complete acceptance of the pool as an integral part of bath house design. Continuing the precedent established by Bath House #3, it forsakes the simple, unadorned facades of early bath houses and instead employs a number of decorative details that articulate and embellish the structure. Incorporating a variety of Renaissance motifs, including a rusticated entrance surround, cartouches and Palladian style windows, its architect, O.J. Gette, designed a rather monumental facade whose planar stucco walls provide a foil for the building’s elaborate detailing. Gette’s use of colored stucco surfaces and red tiled parapets may have been influenced by Bath House #4’s proximity to the Fermi Middle School (G. Howard Chamberlin, arch.; 1925)—a large Spanish Mission style school building located across the street from the bath house. Together, the two buildings add an exotic note to a neighborhood composed mainly of small frame dwellings and multi-family tenements.

Interior of Public Bath #4, now the Linden Street Pool.
Courtesy Yonkers Planning Bureau.