
← St. Louis on the Air3 days ago · 32 min
St. Louis helped create public bathrooms. There's still room for improvement
St. Louis helped create public bathrooms. There's still room for improvement
Bryant Simon’s new book "For Customers Only" explores the history of public bathrooms in the U.S. It’s a story marked by inequality — with several St. Louis ties throughout the centuries. Simon talks about past and present bathroom discrimination, the golden age of public restrooms in the late 1800s, and how those facilities declined in quality, or outright disappeared, during a wave of disinvestment in public amenities in the latter half of the 20th century.