A Balcony on the World, a KQED documentary, uncovers the long-overlooked story of the Aquatic Park Bathhouse building. Now home to the San Francisco Maritime Museum, the building was constructed during the Great Depression as part of the New Deal’s Works Progress Administration. As a sanctuary for art, beauty and leisure, A Balcony on the World shines a light on the visionary artists, architects and civic leaders who shaped it. The documentary debuted last summer and will be rebroadcast Sunday, April 5 on KQED+ (Xfinity Channel 710) at 7 p.m. and Monday, April 6 at 1 a.m.
“This film is a revelation — not only for what it says about the building, but for what it says about our city’s history and soul,” said Darlene Plumtree, CEO of the San Francisco Maritime National Park Association. “The Aquatic Park Bathhouse has always belonged to the people, and this documentary gives its stories — and its art — the platform they deserve.”
The Aquatic Park Bathhouse building, the current home of the San Francisco Maritime Museum, was constructed during the Great Depression as part of the Federal Art Project of New Deal’s Works Progress Administration (WPA). As a sanctuary for art, beauty, and leisure, visionary artists and architects, contributed to building, “conceived as an art-filled public facility for Bay swimmers,” according to noted historian Grey Brechin.
The WPA and San Francisco
The WPA was a federal agency created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935 during the Great Depression to employ the unemployed. Millions were hired in a variety of capacities, including construction of public buildings, airports, roads, and parks. Public Works projects heavily supported the arts, hiring artists to produce murals, sculptures, and works for theater, music, and writing programs.
A Balcony on the World highlights the WPA art and architecture in the building, including the massive 10-foot by 100-foot Hilaire Hiler mural Lost Continents of Atlantis and Mu, covering all four walls of the main entrance hall at the visitors’ center of the National Maritime Historical Park. This vividly colorful Surrealist painting is a whimsical representation of sea life. The elegant tile work of African American Modernist Sargent Johnson is featured around the Maritime Museum entrance. Additionally, he designed large mosaics of sea forms in the museum veranda.
This government sponsorship not only enriched the Aquatic Park Bathhouse, but it also encouraged struggling artists to remain in the arts. Johnson considered this sponsorship a pivotal moment in his art career. “It’s the best thing that ever happened to me because it gave me more of an incentive to keep on working,” he said in a 1964 interview for the Archives of American Art. “At the time, things looked pretty dreary, and I thought of getting out of it … the WPA helped me to stay.”
A modern-day restoration by respected conservator Anne Rosenthal, who used forensic techniques to recover the murals’ lost brilliance, revealing hidden layers of abstraction, color theory, and symbolism. Much of the work was painted over, which was a common practice with WPA murals during the 1940s and 1950s, when walls became damaged, and the less expensive option was to paint over the images rather than restoring them.
The Aquatic Park Bathhouse and the Streamline Moderne Style of architecture
When it first opened on Jan. 22, 1939, the Aquatic Park Bathhouse was one of the most sophisticated WPA structures in the United States, exemplifying the Streamline Moderne style. Related to the late period of the Art Deco movement, the Streamline Moderne style emphasizes the horizontal versus the vertical, and smooth, rounded walls, lending to its cohesive, stylized appearance. The Aquatic Park Bathhouse references aquatic themes in its shape, which resembles the clean lines of an ocean liner. The minimal surface-ornamentation approach to architecture remained a popular style for a relatively short period and was less common by the end of the 1940s. After serving many functions through the years, the building was converted into a maritime museum in 1951.
The Aquatic Park Bathhouse is a part of the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park. Operated by the National Park Service, the museum preserves and interprets the region’s rich maritime heritage through exhibitions, historic ships, and public programming. The building continues to serve the community as home to a senior center operated by Sequoia Living, underscoring its ongoing legacy as a public space for all.
Read more about the artists of the Aquatic Park Bathhouse here.
