Steamworks is distinctly different
Auntie has been visiting gay bathhouses for decades — dating back to furtive visits to Club Baths Philadelphia / Club Philadelphia in the 1980s when I was still figuring out what I liked or didn’t like (in men and in clubs). Over the years, I’ve seen all sorts of spaces:
- Classics that have stood the test of time
- Tiny “health clubs” that were clearly baths in disguise
- Dingy spaces that looked like they were one fire inspection away from closure
- Resort-inspired clubs in Key West, Puerto Vallarta, and San Juan
- Modern dance-club-like environments such as the Adonis in Las Vegas
- Even a London sex club hidden beneath a literal railroad trestle
Different and distinct from all those places is the Steamworks chain of North American bathhouses. They are different because they are a family of bathhouses under a unified corporate structure and (mostly) cooperative management. They are distinct because their approach is to make a visit to the baths very consistent, no matter which of their clubs you visit.
The Steamworks aesthetic
The Steamworks chain prides itself on a particular aesthetic, promising that each club will remind you of all the others. With this approach, clients can have a sense of what to expect before they visit. The aesthetic includes:
- Steel, concrete, and aluminum as a design system
- Black as a primary color
- “Caution-tape yellow” used not as warning but as an invitation to play
- A belief that bathhouse towels can be luxurious
- Lockers that actually are large enough for your clothes, shoes, and bag (and some that are slightly larger than a few Manhattan sublets)
- The belief that cleanliness actually is next to godliness
- Hot tubs that are almost large enough to swim in
- Wet areas that are designed as much for showing off as they are for keeping clean
And honestly, the aesthetic seems to extend to the clientele as well: Steamworks often attracts very attractive, well-built people who are quite willing to show off their physique.
The Steamworks vibe
Steamworks not only wants patrons to have a good sense in advance what their bathhouses look like, they also want the overall feel (vibe) to be very similar as well:
- They play the same music that you would find in most dance clubs
- Fairly frequently, they’ll have a local (or nationally/internationally famous) DJ play for busy nights and events
- The entire space is laid out to encourage public play
- There are a lot of play spaces
- They are large areas
- The play spaces are creative (for example, Auntie first encountered a slurp ramp at the Chicago Steamworks)
The overall vibe of Steamworks could be summed up as, “LGBTQ sex is good, and it can be fun — in a space we want to visit.”
A little history
You might have read in my “History of Bathhouses” post that bathhouses were widely rumored to be “super-spreader sites” (to use a modern term) for HIV/AIDS. While they were certainly not the only — and probably not the major — way that the virus spread, the backlash was pretty harsh, and many bathhouses suffered:
- Attendance dropped, causing financial distress
- Some towns and cities imposed major restrictions — and even outright bans — on bathhouses
In response, most bathhouses that survived worked to become places for education about safer-sex practices. Many also partnered with local clinics and healthcare professionals to provide HIV and STI testing.
In spite of that, for many people, gay bathhouses became a “dirty little secret” — they visited, but they certainly didn’t want anyone to know that they did. With the reduction in income, many became literally dirty and disreputable.
The Steamworks founders did the opposite
Instead of retreating and hiding, the Steamworks founders decided that they would create a space where one could be proud to be a member of the LGBTQ community, could be proud to be a sexual being — and be both at once in a space designed to celebrate LGBTQ sexuality.
They wanted their bathhouses to feel very different from the older generation of bathhouses that many people associated with secrecy, shame, and decline. (Well, if not your dad’s or granddad’s bathhouse, that one uncle…) Instead of places that were dark, dingy, and often smelly, they went for ultra-modern, clean — and ready for a party!
It worked… for them and for others
At their peak, Steamworks had at least six locations, spread throughout North America from Vancouver, BC, to San Juan, PR. Each would be busy on the typical days and times (weekends, holidays, Pride, etc.) — but they also brought in a crowd at “unusual” times because people just wanted to have some fun in a cool bathhouse.
That led other bathhouses to notice what was working. The “Steamworks effect” had an impact on clubs that were nowhere near their locations:
- Steamworks helped raise patrons’ expectations of what a modern bathhouse could be like.
- Patrons expect bathhouses to be clean and decently maintained. (I see comments frequently on cruising sites/apps that compare a local club to Steamworks.)
- As clubs do maintenance or refurbishing, they’re adding more creative play spaces:
- When Club Philly rebuilt after the fire in 2012/2013, they added a slurp ramp and a dark room with benches and slings
- Crew Club DC has been adding new and different dark areas since 2025
- Bathhouses no longer feel that they have to exist in the shadowy corners of LGBTQ society
- They use modern marketing techniques — including having social media accounts — to attract new patrons
- They engage as active members of the community by sponsoring sex-positive events and/or being a presence at Pride celebrations
It isn’t all sunshine and roses
Something happened (well, apparently quite a series of things) in 2018 that put a huge rift between the founders, management company, and others of the “Steamworks family.” Auntie isn’t going to go near those waters, but the gist of the state of Steamworks as a corporation today is:
- Three of the bathhouses are operated by one company
- Two others using the name cooperate with each other and appear to be co-managed
- All of them still use the same basic naming and branding
- All of them have the same aesthetics and vibe
- A lawsuit has existed since 2018 to try to work out all the financial and ownership/management details
Auntie has visited several of the Steamworks clubs since 2018 and can state that the legal troubles haven’t affected the customer experience: We can still go and enjoy a Steamworks location without needing to worry who owns and operates it.
Auntie says…
Steamworks is as close to a “juggernaut” as the gay bathhouse world gets. In spite of the legal issues at the corporate level, they are some of the largest, most beautiful, and entertaining bathhouses anywhere. And they’ve had an impact on Bathhouse Culture that reaches to each and every bathhouse in North America.