The Vesuvio Steam Bath at 563 Brant was the site of a fire April 27.
It seems like the place has been around forever. Doing some research it looks like it was the site of a shooting in 1969 and an armed robbery in 1980, but not much else is out there about. Charges of keeping a bawdy house were filed against the owners of the Etna Steam Baths at 563 Brant in 1964. So the place has been around nearly half a century.
Anyone know anything else about it?
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We used to make fun of it when we were kids- it’s been around at least since the 1950s….
..Yea, the insult used to be something like….”Oh yeah???? I hear you’re the towel boy at Vesuvios”!! This of course, inferring a “ÿou’re gay” type of politically incorrect slander…
I wonder if it’s a place with a long history in the gay community, maybe since in the 60s, back in the bath house raid days (but no record of one here). Its older than a place like the Happy Tap by some years.
“armed robbery in 1980”
Would the robbers have said “Stick ’em Up”?
Where I grew up (Duluth, Minnesota) we have something similar called the ‘Duluth Family Sauna’. It’s in the absolute worst part of downtown (needle alley), it’s obvious that prostitutes use it as a cheap place to take their ‘clients’, and the downstairs was, unfortunately, one of the only places that gay men could actually socialize. What straight people fail to grasp is not everything about our lives is about sex: straight people made the rules about where we could and could not congregate, and what was left to us were places like the sauna. I know about the Vesuvio and it’s almost identical to the Duluth Sauna – in it’s early days, when this was mostly an area filled by Scandinavian immigrants, it’s a common sight to see saunas around town. Since the late 1960’s they’ve become paired up with prostitution.
The cops know about these places. ‘Why aren’t they shut down?’ has always been the question. The answer we always got (from a second-party) is that the cops would rather see the prostitutes and gay guys hanging out inside a building where everything was consensual, instead of having people drive around downtown trying to ‘pick people up’ (bad for tourism, dontcha know). One other thought, which I’d like to believe, is that the cops were genuinely concerned about how vulnerable the Sauna customers were: if the hookers were to bring their tricks home, they could easily get killed. Nobody would know or see anything. The gay guys could easily get set up, robbed and killed bringing someone home. At the sauna, everyone’s there for the same thing. You’re safe because you’re not bringing this person to your home.
Jonathan, thanks for your comments. I’ve talked with people who grew up in the area in the 1960’s and they were always told to steer clear of the area. Which I think was just generally run down, and by the late 1950’s was considered as a “slum”.
I haven’t done any research on it, but I think that this is probably one of the oldest gay targeted businesses in Windsor.
For anyone who hasn’t read it, the book “The Slasher Killings” is a very interesting look at the gay (and crime) history of Windsor at the end of WWII.
http://www.amazon.com/Slasher-Killings-Canadian-Sex-Crime-1945-1946/dp/0814334482
i had a friend that lived upstairs in the late 80’s early 90’s. Once i was walking down Wyandotte St, heading downtown,when a Cadillac with 4 American business men, pulled over and asked me if i knew where Vesuvio’s was, so i told them, then continued walking…..then a minute later thought…..”oh man, i just gave those guys directions to VESUVIO’S”! and had a good chuckle.
back in the day the blue painted section on the building was a faded pink at one time. WHen I worked at both Checker Cab and especially at Veteran Cab (just around the corner ) they used to give us a call to go there (had a direct line inside). Late atr night after the bars had closed there wasn’t much action on the radio so you could grab a few winks. If you were on the cab stand at the TUnnel Bus on maiden Lane and they put out the call for a cab to go to Vesuvio’s it was best not to answer it. You never knew what sahpe the person needing the ride was in or where they were going (sometimes to Detroit). And of course if you did take the call, you had to live with the catcalls from the other drivers all night!
If you were in bad books with the dispatcher for whatever rfeason they would put over the radio that you had a request for Lenny at the Vesuvio’s!
Has the Vesuvio Steam Baths reopened after the fire or is it permanantely closed now?
I call the number but cannot get through.
i stummbled across Vesuvio just now while looking to find a steam sauna in the windsor area. i have lived here all my life and know somw of our fair city’s seedier history but never knew vesuvio existed. I was actually thinking a roman style bath house would be an intriguing business idea butwas curious as to how the social, co-ed , folks being in a state of undress would work and realized it probably wouldn’t. i am sure it would end up being stereotyped into a prostitute hang out any way. hmmm what a shame. so did vesuvio reopen after the fire? and how seedy is it really? i know personally i would kill to find a steam sauna somewhere to actually use. there used to be one at the old Vic Tanny’s gym on wyandotte east when i was a teenager and i have not seen one since. the dry saunas just don’t have the same appeal.
amazing what is in our own back yards isn’t it?
Funny people still talk about the Vesuvio. I used to go to school in Windsor in the 80s. The Big “V” (a la The Big “V” Drug Stores in that same area in the 80s) was my frequent hang out place. Almost every Friday/ Saturday night I used to go there to look for action. Every Friday night their old TV sets would play “Freaky Friday” cheap horror movies broaodcast from Detroit. Old daddy types (50-60 year old) would sit around the fold-up table in the lobby playing cards at late hours. Customers were mainly local mature types. No preppy youngster would go there. They would go to the modern baths in Detroit. But the Big “V” was the place where I started my gay life. Not a lot of action there in those days but they had guys visiting there from Detroit. I remember having some amazing encounters there. In the early 80s it used to be quite busy in the weekends. After the AIDS scare in the mid 80s, many people stopped going there. The place is a dump in most people’s standards, but it’s also a fascinating place for those who like to explore the seedy side of things. They only had dry saunas that gave out that old run down smell of old steam plumbing. Carpets were old and worn, beds were squeaky, mattresses were hard. Lights weren’t dimmable. In other words, the place has no modern comfort. But it has tons of old fashion charm. Makes you feel like you’re back in the 60s when you walk in. Not a great place to look for sex, but it’s valuable for it’s historic value. I think it’s still open. I’ve heard a few times that they tried to sell their business but because there is a big oil tank buried under the ground make the place very expensive to redevelop. That’s why it has remained a bath house all these years.
Yeah..I recall the Big V back in the late 70’s….A real hot spot for the Detroit crowd. Detroit was rather straight laced..so Canada became the liberal place to go. I recall watching the Detroit fireworks on the 4th of July from the Big V’s rooftop…Wow what a sight. Plus the sexual action was fairly rampant and the rooms would rent for 16.00 US> funds for the night. Oh, those were the days…how I remember the sex in the dry sauna.
is this place still open?
When i look out-Side i can see this place wanted to figure out what it was
I haven’t heard anything, so I’m sure it’s still closed. Too bad. It was kind of dumpy, but in a nice way, which gave it tons of character – always easy going, cruisy and friendly. It was by far my favorite sex club, and I wish it would re-open, just as it was.
I was told this is an old trolls place, when the guys went in they were given a condom and allowed in to either a steam bath or to the rooms. The rooms were bare with a hole in the door for the men to display their trophys to the trollers walking by for them to choose.
Drove by this week and it looks like it’s being renovated — new windows and a paintjob. Does anyone know if it’s being re-opened as Vesuvios Bath House?
Some local history research I did on the place.
https://activehistory.ca/2021/03/29902/