Lamar Bathhouse and Bathhouse Row Emporium

The Bathhouse Row Emporium is the park's book-and-gift shop on the first floor of Lamar Bathhouse. It's a useful quick browse for park books and keepsakes, and purchases support the park's education and interpretation. If you're collecting passport stamps, ask at the counter; visitors have picked one up here. The shop is the visitor-facing stop—the building also holds park offices, archives and collections, so don't expect a full bathhouse museum.

Harry Schwebke designed the Lamar in a clean-lined transitional style with some Spanish influence. From the sidewalk, look for the three-part sun porch and its wide center bay against the long two-story façade. Frame the projecting porch with part of the longer wall behind it to show how the two pieces meet.

The current building opened in 1923, replacing a wooden Victorian bathhouse built in 1888 and named for Lucius Q. C. Lamar. Its bathing days ended in 1985; when it operated, it offered five tub lengths from 5 to 6½ feet. Bathhouse Row and the Grand Promenade became a National Historic Landmark District in 1987.

The porch is the easiest feature to pick out outside, but the old lobby was notable too: it had the largest footprint on the row and a long Tennessee-marble counter. The Lamar's first-floor shop now sells books and educational products, a very different use for a building once designed around bathing.