Art Deco Bathhouses Showcase the Glory of NY's Public Beaches

Jacob Riis Bathhouse, Summer 2026. John Bartelstone Photography/John Bartelstone

The fundamentals of the beach look the same: sand, sun and surf. The differences lie in your approach. Historically, you would have bought a house, rented a place or camped out to compete for a little piece of summer heaven.

In the 1920s, then-chairman of the New York State Council of Parks Robert Moses decided a trip to the beach could be much simpler, and much cheaper, involving only a drive down one of New York State’s new parkways or a city bus ride. The coastline, as part of a public park system, should not be a rarefied commodity but a right. If more people were going to have short-term access to the beach, however, they needed more amenities: changing rooms, chair rentals, food concessions, sports courts, maybe even a pool. Sun, sand and surf were not enough.

Over a 10-year period, multiple architects responded to the brief of welcoming and supporting a low-cost day trip to the shore for urban families. Their designs framed sandy crescents on Long Island, in Queens and in the Bronx with architecture inspired by medieval cloisters, Greek theaters and America’s new love of aerodynamic design. They also represented a major shift in urban park-building, from aping pastoral nature to building out complex recreational facilities. These bathhouses and other shoreline improvement projects were funded by the Works Progress Administration, a government program designed to keep artisans at work during the Great Depression, the same economic crisis that made cheap, local summer trips so necessary.

Despite their beauty and utility, time and tide have not been kind to these buildings. Municipal budget crises and climate change did their best to undo the work, closing the grand entrances but leaving the parking lots. Despite the indignities of port-a-potties and long walks to food, the crowds kept coming. Then as now, income inequality would not keep people from the shore.

Fast-forward to the summer of 2026, and three jewels in New York’s New Deal crown are coming back online, refreshed and reconfigured for how we beach today.