Alfred Finnila

Finnila's Finnish Baths - a.k.a. Finnila's - was a Finnish bathhouse and a health club in San Francisco, California. It served the general public from circa 1910 to September, 2000. Finnila's was located in the Castro District of San Francisco for its first 75 years.

In 1902, Matti Finnila (Finnish spelling: Finnilä) – born August 23, 1885 –, the future founder of Finnila's Finnish Baths, immigrated from Kalajoki, Finland to Los Angeles, California. In Los Angeles, Matti Finnila learned the skill of bricklaying. In 1906, the San Francisco earthquake inspired Matti Finnila to move to San Francisco, to help rebuild the city.

In San Francisco, Matti Finnila met Alexandra (Sandra) Lantta from Ullava, Finland. The couple married and settled to live in the San Francisco's heavily Finnish-populated Castro District. Matti Finnila became a "brick building contractor" in 1910 (1910-1933) and in 1913 he opened a Finnish-style sauna club, Finnila's Finnish Baths, for the general public. It was the "first Finnish steam bath" business in the San Francisco Bay Area.

In 1932, Finnila's continued business at a new, large bathhouse on San Francisco's Market Street, one block westbound from the previous location. A study published in 1949, written by Oskari Tokoi, John Suominen and Henry Askeli, described Finnila's as the "most modern & largest steam bath in U.S.". In 1977, the San Francisco magazine pointed out that Finnila's was "the oldest and most well-known of all Bay Area baths", and "for many years it was the only non-gay bathhouse available".

1. The first sauna of the Finnila family in San Francisco at 9 Douglass Street became a local attraction in the early 1910s. The sauna was built in the basement of the small wood-structured Victorian building, which the Finnilas owned and where they lived. At the start, the sauna was used mainly by the Finnila family, friends and neighbors. However, the word spread, and in 1913 the Finnilas registered their service as a business and began accepting paying customers from the general public. Next, due to popular demand, the Finnila family decided to expand the bathhouse business and to move to a larger space and in more central location.

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