Turkish Steam Baths

Built in 1855 by Milwaukee pioneer John Plankinton (1820-1891,) the building at 4th and Michigan had a long, colorful and even controversial life. Plankinton, wealthy from railroads, banking, and meatpacking, was the founder of the Plankinton House Hotel, Plankinton Bank, Milwaukee Exposition Building, Milwaukee City Railroad Company, Milwaukee Library, and the city's first public soup kitchen. 

Plankinton built this grand Kilbourntown house as a home for his wife, son, and daughters, but he didn't stay long. In 1864, he purchased the James H. Rogers house (and surrounding seven acres) on 15th and Wisconsin.  Over the next two decades, continuous remodeling made the John Plankinton Mansion one of Milwaukee's most prominent and extravagant landmarks. Additional Plankinton mansions were built on West Wisconsin Avenue for Plankinton's children William and Elizabeth. By 1980, all three houses were lost to redevelopment.

Abandoned by the Plankinton family, the old house on Michigan Street became the Hanson & Rogers Turkish Baths on September 18, 1871.  Originally, the three story building offered separate floors for men and women, but quickly became a men-only business. Newspapers described "apartments with temperautres of 130 degrees, followed by a hot room set at 160 degrees, followed by a service area offering showers, plunge baths, magnetic treatments, shaves, rundowns, and sponging." Want ads sought "good German girls" and "boys to learn barber skills."

"The Turkish bath is an institution that is appreciated by one class of people," wrote the Milwaukee Journal on August 16, 1897. "When a man gets run down or tired out, there is nothing like it. Many business men, after a long and exhausting strain, find it a reviver equal to a week at a resort."

Hanson & Rogers didn't last long. In 1893, the Pfister Hotel opened a Turkish Bath Department, promising to give $6 special treatments for guests with sciatic rheumatism and muscular disorders, Mademoiselle Mueller opened her ladies-only Turkish Bath Parlor on 5th and Wisconsin, the Davidson Hotel added a Turkish Bath annex on 3rd and Michigan, and a most opulent and modern Turkish bath opened at the Plankinton House Hotel.

The building became the first Hotel Wisconsin and later the Hotel Williams (1902-1932.)