The Waning Days Of Harlem's Mount Morris Baths

While going through some old manila file folders, I found a handwritten draft of a letter-to-the-editor written on canary yellow paper and dated June 25, 2001. I don't recall what publication prompted me to write it. As far as I know, it was never published. Here's what I wrote (which includes my edits):

Dear Editor:

Re: The increase in HIV infection among black gay men. 

I recently worked part time as a towel attendant in a Harlem bathhouse. During the two months of my employment I witnessed

After working two months as a part-time towel attendant/porter, I can see in a Harlem bathhouse, I can see why there is an increase in HIV infection among young black gay men. During my employment, I found crack vials, poppers, and other evidence of drug abuse as well as carelessly discarded condoms.

On the flipside of the page was another handwritten (and presumably unpublished) undated draft. This is what I wrote:

While the rest of 125th Street [in Harlem] rebuilds or renovates its premises, the Mount Morris Baths remains dirty and rundown. In a 1999 issue of the New York Blade News [a gay newspaper], Walter Fitzer [the straight owner of the bathhouse] claimed that the Health Department had been "busting my chops for the past three years under [then mayor Rudolph] Giuliani." If that is true, it would seem justified.

A Woody Allen Film At Mount Morris Baths?

About four or five years before I was an employee at Mount Morris Baths in Harlem, I went there to interview the owner Walter Fitzer and his son for an article I planned to write for a gay publication about the bathhouse and its history. That article, unfortunately, never got written.* From that interview I remember Walter telling me that the filmmaker Woody Allen (or someone in his production company) approached him about shooting a scene or scenes in the bathhouse. Walter told me that he declined the offer. If what he said was true, he passed up a great opportunity to immortalize the bathhouse on film and  get paid for the use of the premises.

*I recently published an article in the Gay City News (April 17, 2025) about my two and a half years working there.

The Night The Ceiling Collapsed At Mount Morris Baths

For the April 17, 2025 issue of the Gay City News, I wrote an article about what it was like to work at the Mount Morris Baths in Harlem. One of the many things there wasn't space to mention was the night a piece of the ceiling fell. A customer, asleep on the top portion of a bunk bed in the dormitory section, turned his head on the pillow and at that exact moment a piece of concrete from the ceiling landed where his head had been. He miraculously escaped being killed or badly injured.

My Sri Lankan co-worker, Sumi, often told me that Walter, the owner, said I should sleep over in the dormitory. I'm glad I didn't. I might have ended up with a dent in my head or much worse.

Photos Of Harlem's Mount Morris Baths After It Closed

I have color photos of the now-defunct Mount Morris Baths in Harlem that I took about three or four years after it closed in August 2003. There were five men staying there (two co-workers and three customers) in anticipation of the bathhouse reopening, which it never did. Their presence gave me access to the premises.

Unfortunately, I took the pictures with a single-use camera so the number of shots were limited. If I had had a phone camera, I could have taken hundreds of pictures, covering every nook and cranny of the place. But I'm glad I have what I have.

At some point I'd like to use these photos as part of a photo essay in commemoration of the only black gay bathhouse in Harlem. As far as I know, I'm the only person who took pictures of Mount Morris Baths after it went out of business. These pictures, I think, are of historical importance and documents what it looked like sans customers.