Ozark Cultural Center (Ozark Bathhouse)

Ozark Cultural Center (Ozark Bathhouse)

Ozark Cultural Center (Ozark Bathhouse) Photograph by Robert S. Salzar
1922–1923, Mann and Stern. 425 Central Ave.

The Ozark Bathhouse was one of the last of the large bathhouses built on Bathhouse Row. The two-story building is a five-part composition with a recessed central portion between two square towers and end wings; it is finished in stucco and has a red tile roof. Its design is basically Spanish Colonial Revival, though with a more plain character than the Quapaw Baths and Spa (GA5), and the several horizontal bands that wrap the building along with the curved end wings add a slight Art Deco flavor. The central lobby continues the traditional bathhouse design of marble hallways leading to men’s facilities in one direction and women’s in the other. Closed as a bathhouse in 1977, the building reopened in 2014 as a cultural center.

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