A Gold Life-Saving Medal

Embracing the civic boosterism of the times, the Redondo Reflex described Huntington’s new four-story, $150,000 bathhouse as “the largest hot salt plunge in the world.”¹ The three pools stretched 218 feet altogether. They consisted of a main tank, a baby pool, and a pool 9 feet deep for high diving and water polo games. Huntington hired the most experienced bathhouse manager in the area, Fred Killick, to be his superintendent. Killick had managed the Sutro Baths in San Francisco for ten years—Freeth would have seen him there—and had left his job as manager of Bimini Baths to work