Oriental Bath and Laundry Storefront

Oriental Bath and Laundry Storefront

One of the economic niches filled by Chinese and Japanese Americans in the United States was the hand laundry business. The April 9, 1892 issue of the Spokesman-Review includes an article on a meeting of the Anti-Chinese League in which Alderman Ambs called upon housewives to increase their laundry output in order to drive Chinese laundries out of business. The success of Chinese and Japanese hand laundries would continue into the early-20th century. As the storefront of the Oriental Bath and Laundry suggests, the business also served as a bath house. The 1917 Spokane Polk Directory lists 6 bath houses, including a municipal house at Perry and Sinto Avenue. This number likely underestimates the number of public bathing facilities as the section indicates barbers may also run baths, which is to say nothing of facilities advertised in newspaper classifieds. During a time when many hotel rooms did not contain bathing facilities, bath houses provided an important service to the hygiene of a city.

Ryosuke Akashi

Eastern Washington State Historical Society, Joel E. Ferris Research Archives, Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture

1913

For permission to publish, please contact the Joel E. Ferris Research Archives, Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture: https://www.northwestmuseum.org/collections/research-archives/

Black and white photographs

L2003-11.50