5 Rutgers Place, ca. 1909.

The Rutgers Place Bathhouse opened in 1909 and served as a pool and hygiene facility until the financial crisis of the 1970s forced its closure. Originally surrounded by tenements and brick rowhouses, today the building still stands, though long abandoned, surrounded by a very different neighborhood. In the 1950s the surrounding neighborhood was razed for the construction of the 1100 apartments of the NYCHA LaGuardia Houses, completed in 1957. It also is no longer officially at 5 Rutgers Place, as that street and its original cross street, Monroe, were wiped away in the development of the housing project.

For decades the neighbors to the vacant and deteriorating building have advocated for either its demolition (as they say it is blight) or its complete restoration into a community facility once again. These conversations came to a head in 2007, but a decade later the building still stands empty and falling apart.