BOYLE HEIGHTS : 65-Room Project at Former Bathhouse

Maria Cabildo pries open the door of the old bathhouse at 1st and Chicago streets that has been boarded up since a 1986 earthquake rendered it unsafe.

Plaster is crumbling, warped ceilings look as if they will cave in and floorboards are visible through the worn linoleum. Pigeons fly into rooms through windows long missing glass. Some bird carcasses lie in the middle of former bedrooms, feathers clinging to doors and walls.

“This is where birds in East L.A. come to die,” Cabildo says, flashlight in hand and wearing a surgeon’s mask to protect her from the old asbestos throughout the building.

Cabildo, project manager for A Community of Friends, a private, nonprofit group that builds affordable housing for the mentally disabled, is overseeing the gutting and renovation of the bathhouse, which was a gathering place for the Jewish community that thrived in Boyle Heights up until the late 1950s.

The group plans to transform the structure, built in 1925, into small apartments for the mentally disabled or people who simply need an affordable place to live. But the basement pool will be turned into a conference room, keeping intact the original wall tiles and using the marble massage tables as work spaces for clients.

The bathhouse, along with the nearby Breed Street shul, was probably the most prominent gathering place for immigrants who brought to this country a tradition of taking community baths and getting rubdowns regularly.

“Their roots were in Europe, where everyone was not used to having their own bath or shower,” said Stephen Sass, president of the Jewish Historical Society of Southern California. “Beyond that, it became a whole social center. People would gather to play cards. It was an important part of the neighborhood recreation. In essence, it became a place where stories were swapped, where they could catch up on gossip.

“We are pleased to hear that it is not just going to be torn down and turned into a strip mall,” Sass said. “It was used for curative powers in the past and it still will, and that’s really exciting.”

Each of the proposed 65 rooms will have its own bathroom. Community kitchens will serve both floors of the two-story building. Plans include a community garden, a central courtyard and a community room available to neighbors for meetings. Tenants will pay no more than one-third of their incomes on rent, with the rest subsidized by the federal government. A Community of Friends will work with El Centro Human Services to fill vacancies.

Although other neighborhoods in Los Angeles have rejected residential projects for the mentally disabled, the Boyle Heights residents welcomed the group’s plans, Cabildo said. In fact, the neighbors were concerned for the safety of the future residents.

“They were afraid that our people would become victims because this is a really rough corner,” Cabildo said. As a result, she has budgeted for security guards.

A Community of Friends bought the building in November, and construction, with $5 million in federal, city and private funds, should start in July or August. It will be finished at the end of 1995.

“We like looking for buildings that are a blight to the community so that a rehabilitation will have a positive effect on the community,” Cabildo said.