Hot Springs National Park Archives 
Hot Springs National Park Archives What is a bath attendant? Were there other jobs in a bathhouse?Bath attendants administer Hot Springs National Park's thermal water to visitors. They do this by assisting customers through the bathing regimen in a bathhouse. Historically bath attendants performed hydrotherapy treatments prescribed by a physicians who was licenced by the Department of the Interior.New jobs in the bathhouse appeared as Hot Springs' bathing industry grew in popularity in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Accompanying an attendant was a man or woman known as a helper. Helpers assisted attendants by checking on patients, serving patrons thermal water to drink, and preparing the baths. The helper position served as an apprenticeship. Helpers could move up to become attendants. Helpers also managed the pack room, where employees wrapped patients in towels soaked in thermal water. The packing process helped aleviate pain and discomfort in an affected area. Physicans in the early twentieth century linked massage therapy to hydrotherapy. Bathhouse owners responded by employing licenced massage therapists to compliment prescribed baths. Massage therapists were separate from the bathing experience and were often located on a different floor away from the men's and women's bath halls. 
Hot Springs National Park Archives Were all bathhouse employees African American?The overwhelming majority of bathhouse attendants were African American. African Americans came to Hot Springs in search of consistent pay and new opportunities. Hot Springs' Black population performed many hard labor jobs in the town immediately after the Civil War. This included working in the hot, humid, and physically demanding jobs in the bathhouses seven days a week. African American bathhouse employees remained the foundation of the national park's bathing industry for nearly a century. 
Hot Springs National Park Archives How long did someone work as a bath attendant?This answer varies a lot! Some attendants remained in the same position their entire careers, which could be decades, while others jumped around from bathhouse to bathhouse, position to position.There was a way for workers to climb the professional ladder in a bathhouse. An employee often began as a helper. They assisted the primary attendant in the bath hall and the pack room. After this, they could attend the bath attendant school and become a regular attendant. This promotion allowed them to work in any of the bathhouses in town. Lastly, attendants could pursue more training, with their own money, to become a massage therapist, the profession that paid the most in a bathhouse. The national park’s archives have examples of some bathhouse workers surviving the same tough conditions and working in a professional manner for 20, 40, and even 60 years! Families often worked in the bathhouses together, including spouses, relatives, children, and grandchildren. Other employees let bathhouse work compliment their other jobs in and out of Hot Springs. Most bathhouses closed in the afternoon hours so many workers had second jobs in Hot Springs’ hotels, boarding houses, and restaurants. And since the bathing industry was seasonal, peaking in the late fall and winter months, many men and women left town in the summer and found work in other resort towns. Employee records show that some attendants chose to work at a variety of bathhouses as they looked for better opportunities or a healthier work environment. Does this sound familiar? Have you found a job you can work for decades or do you enjoy the new opportunities and experiences in the workplace? How many people worked in a bathhouse?The national park does not have complete records of any bathhouse and its staff, but we have snapshots that can help answer these questions. Let’s focus on just the men and women that helped with the baths and massages. That included bath attendants, helpers, pack room employees, massage therapists, as well as maids and porters.In 1944, the Department of Labor and the Department of the Interior surveyed Hot Springs’ bathing industry to see if bath attendants deserved a pay raise, one they had not received in decades. This survey gives us a glimpse into every bathhouse right before 1947 when Hot Springs National Park offered the most baths in one year, over 1,050,000. The survey recorded 334 bathhouse employees in the 18 operating bathhouses, 276 of whom were attendants, helpers, pack room employees, massage therapists, maids, and porters. The table below shows the breakdown for each bathhouse. The different staffing numbers explain the capabilities of the bathhouses and how some businesses prioritized baths while others focused on attracting visitors with a large corps of massage therapists. Take a look at the chart below to explore the workforce for each bathhouse!
Hot Springs National Park Archives How much were bath attendants paid?Early bathhouse workers did not make much money. Management often took advantage of their employees. In 1890, Charles Hodge worked at the Government Free Bathhouse. He worked 11-hour shifts every day. Hodge was compensated $15 a month for his work. This comes out to a little over $500 today. A government investigator reported his wage was “entirely too small for his laborious efforts.” He concluded Hodge “should receive two or three times what he is getting.”Bath attendants responded by organizing and fighting for better wages and incentives. In the 20th century, bathhouses began to pay attendants per bath. Employees recorded the number of baths they provided and bathhouse management paid workers weekly. For example: in 1948 it cost $1.50 ($19.55 today) to take one bath at the Fordyce Bathhouse, and $23.05 ($300.49) for a full course of 21 baths. Bathhouse employees received 33 cents ($4.30) for each bath they administered. That was split between a bath attendant, who received 25 cents ($3.26) and their helper, who received the remaining 8 cents ($1.04). Attendants typically earned between $15,000-25,000 / year, in today’s money. Let’s not forget tips! Patients and patrons routinely tipped bathhouse employees for their work and care when administering the baths. Attendants, like Fordyce Bathhouse employee Myrtle Cheatham, concluded “If it had not been for our tips, I’m assuming that we would have perhaps starved to death.” Evidence suggests tips could average between 25% - 100% of an attendant’s yearly salary. 
Were African American attendants paid more or less than a typical worker in the United States?Yes and no. Compensation in Hot Springs’ bathing industry varied drastically. Since bathhouses paid attendants per bath, an attendant’s salary depended on the person, the opportunities they had to bathe patients, as well as the capacity of the bathhouse. Some bathhouse employees earned an impressive salary. For others a job in the bathing industry was just one part of a worker's livelihood.Voncile Payton put a lot of time and energy into her job. She worked at the Quapaw Bathhouse. In 1944, the Quapaw administered over 75,000 baths, the second most on Bathhouse Row. In just one week in July, Payton gave a whopping 211 baths earning her $42.20, not including her tips, which the bathhouse estimated at $14. With this information we can estimate Voncile Payton made between $1,000 - $1,500 in 1944. Census Records from 1947 show that non-white women earned about $432. For white women it was $1,269. Ms. Payton’s service, determination, and work ethic made her more money than most women across the country. 
Bottom photo: Bath attendant helper Lewis "Snook" Wesson during 1993 interview. Hot Springs National Park Archives On average, African American men and women were paid less than white workers in America. In 1939, Black men’s and women’s median income was 41% and 36% of what their white counterparts made, respectively. By 1960, these percentages had only climbed to 60% and 50%. Bathhouse workers used their positions in the bathing industries to challenge these trends. In Hot Springs, bathhouse employees owned homes, cars, businesses in town, and were able to provide for their family and community. 
Hot Springs National Park Archives Did bath attendants have to go to school to work in Hot Springs' bathhouses?Yes. Prospective bath attendants needed specific training to administer the waters in Hot Springs National Park.The first bath attendant school took place in 1910. Army Major and Hot Springs' first Medical Director Harry Hallock created the first school. Hallock believed the school would help create a skilled and efficient medical corps in Hot Springs and exams would promote uniformity in an industry that had a lot of variety in the 19th century. Physicians in town taught courses on anatomy, hydrotherapy, and workplace ethics in the school, which was only 2-3 classes held twice a year. Bathhouse workers relied on the Black community to help young and old students pass the written exam. Veteran bath attendants and teachers in the neighborhood opened the town’s Black high school at night to help workers learn to read and write in advance of the exam, as well as offer refreshers on course material. Applicants could retake the exam, but two failures meant prospective workers had to wait a year. 119 out of 178 students passed the first bath attendant exam in 1910. Results improved in the years and decades that followed. Bath attendant exams became more thorough and specific to the hydrotherapy treatments performed in Hot Springs’ bathhouses. Interested in what was on a bath attendant exam? Check out exams from the national park’s archives! 
Hot Springs National Park Archives Who prescribed the thermal waters? Doctors or bath attendants?“The bathing directions of the physician are similar to a prescription for potent drugs and the bath attendant must be as careful to carry out the bathing directions as a druggist is in filling a prescription.” – Order from Superintendent Clarence H. Waring, M.D., 1923Physicians prescribed thermal water hydrotherapy treatments to patients that visited Hot Springs National Park. Male and female doctors worked with national park officials to turn the park’s bathhouses into medical facilities. Physicians wrote prescriptions for patients and bathhouse employees were expected to adhere to these directions. Prescriptions involved specific water temperatures, lengths of baths, and detailed instructions for numerous hydrotherapy treatments. Bath attendants had more experience with the thermal water than anyone in Hot Springs. They bathed dozens of patients every day for decades. Attendants became experts at their profession. While patients received their prescriptions from doctors, they put their trust in the hands of bathhouse workers. Bathhouse employees’ expertise sometimes clashed with physicians’ prescriptions. When officials and physicians learned that attendants were going off-script and creating new treatment schedules for patients in 1905, they responded with newspaper headlines like “BATH ATTENDANTS MUST NOT PRESCRIBE.” Beginning in the 1920s Hot Springs National Park’s superintendent would make surprise inspections of the bath halls every week. Equipped with a specialized thermometer, the superintendent would not only compare water temperatures with prescriptions but survey the bathhouse environment and employee behavior. Failure to follow the specific prescriptions, even if the patient and not the employee was at fault, could lead to an attendant’s suspension or outright dismissal. |
Last updated: August 15, 2024