The Georgia Baths sign was a familiar sight along Jasper Avenue for years.
This modest sign hung perpendicular to one of the city's iconic structures, the Flat Iron Building on Jasper Avenue and later on the Brighton Block, its neighbour to the west as the business changed locations.
Steam baths once were a common part of Edmonton life, popular with European immigrant groups and working men.
Edmonton Turkish Baths Limited opened for business in October 1913. Like today's health and beauty spas, bath facilities were considered very luxurious.
Luxurious Bath Facilities
Edmonton Turkish Baths boasted 13 large sleeping rooms, two large hot rooms (separate for each gender), a steam room, three shower baths, six tub baths, a barbershop, cigar stand, refreshments and shoeshine.
Turkish baths begin with a steam, followed by a soap rub, ending with a salt rub. The Edmonton Journal observed in 1913 that, "A new and elaborate Turkish Bath House has at last been established in the city to fill a long felt want for a city of the size and population of Edmonton ... located in the new Gibson block, one of Edmonton's high class structures, situated on Jasper Avenue at the point where Rice, Kinistino and Jasper converge..."
The Georgia Turkish Baths, a direct successor of the Edmonton Turkish Baths, would be the last such business to close in Edmonton in August 1991. It reopened briefly in 2004 as Steamers, but was again closed in November 2005. When it closed, Georgia Baths was known as "Edmonton's oldest public steam bath".
The sign was donated by: John Toma
This sign was generously restored by: Skyline Sign Services