About
Baruch Playground is located just north of Delancey, south of Houston and west of the FDR. You can catch a peak of it from the Williamsburg Bridge. The synthetic turf soccer field is larger than you'd expect and nearby there are dedicated spaces for basketball and handball.
In 1901, long before becoming a haven for soccer players, Baruch Playground was next door to NYC’s first free public bath built with public funds. The legislation to make it a reality came about after advocacy by Dr Simon Baruch. Driven by his experiences on the battlefield of the Civil War and in the tenements of the Lower East Side, Dr Baruch became a champion for public bathing facilities. At the time, there was an average of only one bathtub for every 80 New Yorkers in the area. Turned out the "unwashed masses" did want to get clean: during a 1906 heat wave, the lines to get into the bathhouse got so long that riots broke out.
The bathhouse’s exact location was at 326 Rivington. Unfortunately, the building has since been left to abandon, hidden between taller buildings.
