This was once an ornate bath house, rich with beautiful and ornate carvings of Neptune's kingdom. Note how the facade has come off most of the exterior, but the window dressing remains.

This building was featured in the forgettable Sandra Bullock-Hugh Grant vehicle Two Weeks' Notice, in which it served as the "Coney Island Community Center" that Bullock's character was trying to save. (I only know this because they played this video on a bus trip I happened to be on recently, honest. Peter Pan Bus does that sort of thing.) It was pretty amazing to see what a Hollywood job could do to the building, which was seen only from the outside (there was a little cafe area by the arches, and every now and then some extras would walk out of the building demonstrating the stuff they'd learned at the community center. Or whatever.) Pity the real building can't be restored the real way and put to good use again.

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Copyright © 2003 R. Noyes.