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Patrons, 50 percent of
whom were Jewish, he
says, steamed, then
plunged into a cool pool of
water, or were sprayed with
cold water, steamed again,
and if lucky, had a plaitza
with an oak leaf broom
soaked in hot water. All for
S4.
After all that, you could
also indulge in a huge meal
prepared on the premises.
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21728 W. Eleven Mile Rd.
Harvard Row Mail • Southfield, MI 48076
A Steamy History
Zei
352-8622 ;
Rochester Hills
651-5009
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Ad .
7/27
2001
36
(248) 559-5424
(888) 202-4466 Fax: (248) 559-5426
29115 Greenfield, Southfield, MI 48076
Top:
Gary Sosnick fondly
recalls the cook-manager
Mots Johnson, as the
man who "ran [the
bathhouse], cared for it,
fed us and handmade the
oak leaf plaitza brooms
for the steam room.
Above:
Gary Sosnick in the early
70s enjoying a salad
after a steam bath.
The story of the bathhouse
begins in 1930, when
Charles Meltzer dug out the
basement of a building with
a dance hall. There he built
a mikvah (ritual bath), a
pool, and a steam room.
The main floor became a
place to change and dine,
while the second floor was
converted into a rooming
house. The mikvah was
eventually sealed off before
Sosnick's time, but it was
resurrected as a whirlpool
bath in 1980, after new
owners took over.
In the early 20th century,
bathhouses were not only
social meeting places, writes
Sosnick, but hygienic neces-
sities for the immigrants,
many from Eastern Europe,
who lived in nearby cold-
water flats and apartments.
European Jews needed
public bathhouses, and
more than a dozen existed
in Detroit during that time.
"The Russian steam room
tradition was decidedly a
Jewish one," he adds. "And
the bathhouse on Oakland
Avenue remains as its last
and finest example."
Until 1977, Charles' son,
Harry Meltzer, "a tough-
skinned businessman,"
writes Sosnick, owned the
bathhouse. But the most
interesting figure on the
Web site is Toots Johnson,
the cook, manager and
sometimes bouncer, who