During the 1970s gay bath houses and sex clubs in America and abroad started offering things like tee shirts, collectible coins, personalized matchbooks and other memorabilia. Although much of these treasures have been discarded or lost through the years, the webmaster of this site has collected a number of interesting items from the baths, and they are presented here for your pleasure. If you have any interesting gay bathhouse memorabilia and you would like to display it on this website, please email the webmaster at:

 website411 @ yahoo.com

The Club Baths Chain of the 1970s and early 1980s was among the first of the baths to proudly print their name and insignia on matches, tee shirts, advertisements and other items. With locations in the USA from Akron to Washington D.C. and abroad (including four locations in Canada), the Club Baths Chain was the largest gay bath house chain in the world, and one of the first openly gay businesses in North America.

The Club Baths of New York City ran a full page ad in the gay rags of the day that went like this, "Get wet in our Olympic size Jacuzzi...Dry off on our sun deck or in The Dome, a large, atrium-like room with comfortable provisions for lounging and relaxing and a glass roof that lets the sun shine in...Warm up in our amazing maze, multitude of mirrors, and exotic, erotic murals...Stay hot with our sauna and steam equipment...Come to the New York Club Bath and join the hottest men in Manhattan...you're all wet if you don't!"

Left: Matchbook from the popular New St. Mark's Baths in New York City's East Village. In addition to offering matches, the New St Mark's Baths also printed posters and postcards, like the one below. This sex club was owned by Bruce Mailman who also ran the legendary Saint, a disco club. The New St Marks Baths was most popular in the evening, especially when the bars and clubs let out. Now the location is a popular music store.

Right:  Matchbook from San Francisco's erstwhile Sutro Bath House. The Sutro Baths closed before the S.F. Health Department's 1984 AIDS-related bathhouse closures, going out with a two-day party that featured a bonfire safe sex pamphlets on the street. The interesting thing about this place is that it was co-ed. Many men recall cruising the halls and having the option of getting some dick or pussy! Believe it or not.

Left: Postcard from the New St Mark's Baths in New York City's East Village. Closed down long ago during the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, the New St Mark's Baths had over 100 private rooms and 250 lockers, and on some nights every locker and room was taken!

Right: Personalized Lube and Condoms from the Watergarden Baths in San Jose, California. The Watergarden is la crème de la crème of all baths in North America. Where else can you play with a lot of hot men, and then spend the night in an ultra clean room supplied with a blanket (see the front desk) and even get a wake-up call? You get all that at the Watergarden.

Above and Below: These rare gems are dollar-sized bills from the former Bulldog Baths of San Francisco. They were "redeemable for merchandise auctioned at Bulldog," as the bills claim. Billed as the "Largest Bath in the USA," the Bulldog Baths was popular with the leather and Levi crowd, and even hosted slave auctions on site. According to Drummer Magazine (Vol. 4, Number 33, 1980) the Bulldog Baths "is strictly mansex with men in a man's environment. From the truck driver to the prison guard, from the construction hardhat to the street cop; the motif of the Bulldog Baths brings them all to life."