Subterranean pleasures

I had nearly forgotten I had this picture! Years ago I wrote featured travel articles for a section of the Wichita Eagle. Most of the monthly pieces focused on Kansas destinations. 

This photo comes from Ellinwood, Kansas, and its underground 'Main Street.' There is a lot of speculation on the origins of putting businesses beneath two city blocks of a prairie town, where space is not a problem. What is known is that  many of the establishments provided men-only services to cowboys, bringing cattle up from Texas to slaughterhouses up north. Before they headed out to a night of entertainment, cowhands need a shave and a bath. At first glance, these look like zinc coffins but they are dandy little bathtubs, a delight to the saddle weary. 

Sadly much of the district were sealed up when city fathers decided that the decaying wooden sidewalks and tunnels were hazards too costly to maintain. The bathhouse, barbershop are about all that remain, but left in the original grubby condition, much as they were (minus the floor fan) when abandoned in the 1920s.

Solitary but not private

This toilet has not been cleaned for decades. A chilling reminder of the brutality of 20th century punishment for the most hardened criminals, this is a shot of a cell in Alcatraz. Privacy is not an option.

This is the shower room. Plenty of cold water for all

Light is right

The poster, courtesy of Gatorade, was posted on various restroom doors in the gym facility of Butler Community College. Just in case, a young athlete forgot to drink enough water in the hot days of early fall, this colorful reminder provides a gauge of the quantity of liquids that have been consumed.

Traveling comforts

I don't know about you but I hate using the 'facilities' on a moving vehicle of any sort, train, bus, plane, it doesn't matter. However, I am fascinated by compactness and economy of space.

So, I was captivated by the bathroom facilities afforded on this 1931 train display in Omaha's Durham Museum. Unfortunately there were gates that kept visitors from entering the areas so it is difficult to appreciate the compact elegance of this first-class accommodation. The cars hearkened back to the days when train travel was a luxury to be savored, not a lurch from one place to another.

Not one, but two sinks, one, I believe for shaving
Note the padded bench in front of the corner one

Voila! the bench reveals the toilet

the space over the toilet become a berth

Another car featured the sink transformed into a shelf
and..

Honoring the setting

 I took these images a few years ago at the one-day conference at Park College, Parkville, Missouri just north of Kansas City.
The private college's dominant feature is a venerable limestone structure located on a bluff overlooking the Missouri River, now on the National Register of Historic Places.
What many don't realize is how much of the campus is underground. Campus developers utilized the bluffs to excavate and build learning spaces and parking underground. This restroom reflects how the designers honored their surroundings, incorporating the texture of the limestone bluffs as well as tile to the restroom's design. The limestone walls are not incorporated quite so clearly in other areas but it clearly adds an fascinating aesthetic to the environment.