Trenton Bath House

Ewing Township, United States

Access unknown

We could not determine this from the source data.

Find out more

Located in Ewing Township, New Jersey, the Trenton Bath House is an influential 1955 design by Louis Kahn and his associate Anne Tyng. Originally conceived as part of a larger (unrealized) plan for the Jewish Community Center of the Delaware Valley, the building functioned as an entrance and changing facility for an adjacent outdoor swimming pool. Despite its name, it is neither a bath house nor located in Trenton. The structure's deceptively simple cruciform plan comprises four square concrete-block rooms arranged around an open atrium, each topped by a wooden rectangular pyramid and supported at its corners by large, open rectangular columns. Kahn identified the building as a turning point in his architectural philosophy, particularly in articulating his concept of "spaces serving and spaces served"—a principle that influenced his subsequent work. The National Register of Historic Places recognized the building in 1984, and in 2006 Mercer County and Ewing Township purchased it for $8.1 million to preserve its historic integrity.