It's funny how this story just popped up as I am in the early stages of starting a project to create a series of murals in the South of Market area with the theme of Gay South of Market History. More about that later.
The former site of the old Bulldog Baths in San Francisco is scheduled to become a doggie day care center. Since the Health Department closed all the bathhouses during the AIDS scare of the early 1980's, the building at 130/132 Turk Street has mostly been left vacant.
The facility, which could aid city-led efforts to rejuvenate the rough-and-tumble area, will provide only daytime accommodations for dogs, proprietor David Nale said.
Customers could include Tenderloin residents and workers who park in surrounding garages who will pay up to $40 a day for the service, according to Nale.
The ground floor, which has cavernous 16-foot ceilings and 128 feet of depth, will be divided into four dog playgrounds.
The upper two stories might be overhauled and converted into living units.
The new business will be called Bulldog Baths in honor of the abandoned bathhouse, which was renamed after opening in the 1930s as Club Turk Baths, according to Nale.
I can't wait for some queen from out of town to show up with a 30 year old Damron Guide looking for action to show up in his harness and dog collar and find out the place really does have "puppy training"!
“It was one of the very first gay bathhouses in San Francisco — and one of the last,” said Nale, who bought the building in 2006.
Some friends of mine are in the process of converting an old porn theater around the corner into a legit gay theater and re-naming it the Gaiety. New art galleries and hipster restaurants are also opening on the same block, which is right down the street from me. Hello, propery values? See you on the way up!
