As a queer space, a bathhouse is “a medium for gay men to make social and sexual relations with other gay men.” However, long before Georgia Baths filled this eventual role, it first began as a Turkish bath. In 1913, the Edmonton Turkish Baths opened, providing a unique and luxurious space for men and women (separately) to enjoy steams and rubs, as well as providing access to bathing and barber facilities. Around 1937, they rebranded as the Georgia Turkish Baths, relocating in 1946 from the iconic Flat Iron Building to the fashionable Brighton Block. By this time, the steam baths had already become one of “Edmonton’s early gay destinations.”

Run first by Mike Bordian, and then after 1961 by his son Ed, the Georgia was once a “Sunday social club” for older men to play cards, but those days didn’t last. Bordian knew many of his customers were gay, but stated, “As long as [they don’t] raise any trouble down here, there are no problems.” Staff member Mike Robinson noted that the women’s section lay unused due to low demand, but also highlighted that “three quarters of the 30 to 40 daily customers have been going for years.”

How the Georgia remained a gay space well into the 1970s is documented by a firsthand recounting of a visit by Edmonton Journal reporter James Adams, who ventured down with colleagues unsure if they would encounter a “fabled world of heavenly pleasure.” Expectation quickly led to disappointment when they were met with “moldy carpet”, “towels with the texture of corrugated cardboard”, and “pipes that began to blank and throb like the Jaws soundtrack,” which was a far cry from the Bette Midler experience he had been anticipating given the singer’s recent start in New York City’s famed bathhouse subculture. Ads on the walls at the Georgia indicated places where the gay community could be tested for “VD.” The sight of two older men holding hands in the steam room was enough to prompt Adams’ companion to press “his back to the wall.”

Only a few short years after that 1978 visit, the Edmonton Police Service raided the Pisces Spa. The Georgia Baths somehow escaped similar police action. While some sources indicate the Georgia Baths closed in 1991, it seems to have continued on covertly into the late 1990s, when media attention returned to Edmonton’s baths scene with the opening of Down Under Men’s Bathhouse, located at the west end of Jasper Avenue. The Georgia was still advertising as a gay men’s bathhouse in the Edmonton Rainbow Business Association’s 1998 guidebook.

The Georgia Baths rebranded again, this time as “Steamers” in 2004. Down Under had since been joined by Steamworks, and Edmonton was now home to three gay bathhouses. Steamers, the final incarnation of the oldest of the three bathhouses, was short-lived. Health inspectors closed it down in 2005 for multiple public health violations.

The neighborhood around the Georgia was also home to several adult “peep shows,” particularly Centrefold, which also had a second location further west on Stony Plain Road. In 1994, when Centrefold Adult Entertainment first opened, the battle surrounding their purpose and morality was already well underway. Video peeps, which are focused on adult videos instead of live entertainment, arrived in Edmonton in 1990, generating immediate controversy. Those opposed to peep shows expressed concerns about their impact on children, as well as the potential health risks of ejaculation on the floor.

Then Mayor Jan Reimer moved to block businesses such as live peep shows, with the support of many on City Council. Alderman Michael Phair expressed concern over exploitation of women while Alderwoman Sheila McKay used her position as a former nurse to bolster related health concerns. Alderman Leroy Chahley proposed a bylaw that would limit where such adult entertainment businesses could operate. Banner Amusements, owners of several peep shows, threatened to sue the city. The Alberta Court of Appeal eventually sided with the city, prohibiting Centrefold’s expansion to live shows and limiting them only to video offerings.

The Centrefold issue wasn’t the only time that public debate over morality and sexuality impacted LGBTQ2 life in Edmonton. In 1998, when Down Under Men’s Bathhouse was preparing to open, business owners and residents in Oliver expressed concerns similar to those surrounding Centrefold. Owner Jim McBride told the local media there “will be no prostitution or drugs” and expressed his “hopes the business will contribute to the gay community growing in that part of the city.” The Gay and Lesbian Community Centre of Edmonton’s Fred Dicker said “the bathhouse would help curtail the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. The alternative is Victoria Park, which is a lot less controlled environment. In a bathhouse, they hand you a condom on the way in." Councillor Michael Phair expressed optimism the business would be licensed, and representatives from Alberta Health and the Edmonton Police Service also expressed no concerns, with the EPS stating, “opening a facility here, where consensual sex takes place primarily between men, is not a criminal offence.”

This change in stance from the Pisces Health Spa raid, or even the peep show debates of a few years earlier, is indicative of the growing mainstream acceptance of LGBTQ2 people in Edmonton. Although many of these places have now since closed, it was not due to public morality, policing concerns, or homophobia, but because of the same changes that have impacted many local LGBTQ2 bars and clubs: the rise and growth of the Internet and dating apps. Currently, there is one remaining video peep show called “Times Square Books & Magazines” on Stony Plain Road, and Steamworks is the only bathhouse remaining in Edmonton, which has now expanded its facility to be “co-ed” and trans-inclusive on certain nights.