Ritch Street Baths in San Francisco During the 1960s & 1970s

January 1973 Vector Ad

 Ritch Street Health Club was a popular 1960s and 1970s bathhouse located at 330 Ritch Street in the SOMA neighborhood of San Francisco. It opened in the fall of 1965 by gay community leader Rick Stokes, and his business partner/lover who had been together since 1960, David Clayton (d. 1995). Stokes ended up going to law school a year after he opened the baths to become a lawyer to gain more access to power as a gay businessman. As part of his growing involvement in political power by 1971 he had been named by the Family Services Agency of San Francisco as a member of the board of directors. One of the first out homosexuals appointed to a city public position.

January 1975 Vector

March 1975 Vector

Ad from April 1972 Vector

May 1972 Ad from Vector

June/July 1972 California Scene Ad

September 1972 Vector Ad

September 1974 Vector

October 1972 Vector Ad

Ad from November 1971 Vector

November 1974 Vector

Ad from December 1971 Vector

December 1974 Vector

Ad from April/May 1972 California Scene

Ad for Ritch Street Baths from April 1969 Vector

December 1972/January 1973 California Scene Ad

February 1975 Vector

Ad from January 1972 California Scene

January 1976 Vector

Photo from inside Ritch Street from June/July California Scene

June 1972 Ad from Vector

October 1974 In Touch

December 1973 Vector Ad

Ad for Ritch Street Baths from August 1967 Vector

June 1974 ad for the restaurant inside Ritch Street Baths

The club was hit with an arson fire in 1977 as part of a rash of bathhouse fires that swept San Francisco in 1977 - 1978. With the place heavily damaged Stokes and his original investors had sold it to the national Club Baths Chain. It closed down during the San Francisco bathhouse crisis in 1984.  Here is how the location looks today