Information on reverse side:
In the early part of the twentieth century,  the phrase,  "the great unwashed,"  was applied to the gritty mill workers and anyone in the social order who had not yet achieved social graces and indoor plumbing.   It is interesting to note how prominently cleanliness figured in charitable activities of the time.   Pittsburgh philanthropists Andrew Carnegie,  Henry Phipps,  and Henry Oliver all included public bathing facilities among their charitable works.
The ultimate Pittsburgh bath house was erected at the base of the 10th Street Bridge on the corner of Bingham Street in 1915 when Henry Oliver gave the city $100,000 to construct a South Side Public Bath House,  decreeing that it be "free for the use of the people forever,"  and $100,000 as an endowment to cover maintenance and employee salaries,  leaving utilities as the city's only financial responsibility.   Echoing the earlier Phipps Gymnasium and Bath House in what was then Allegheny City (now the North Side),  the Oliver Bath House was originally sketched out by Daniel Burnham and designed by the local firm of McClure and Spahr in a Tudoresque style.   It was the last public bath house to be built in Pittsburgh,  and also indicated a shift in emphasis for such public structures from bathing to swimming with a 40 by 80 foot swimming pool at its core.
In the late 1950's,  a new housing code made bathing facilities mandatory in every dwelling and the need for public bath houses was eliminated.   The Oliver Bath House is now under the care of the city recreation department's Aquatic Division and shares the distinction of the oldest city pool with one in Lawrenceville.