Dwight James Baum

Dwight James Baum was a distant relative of author Frank Baum, author of The Wizard of Oz. He was an American architect mostly active in New York and in Sarasota, Florida. In 1909, he completed his architectural studies in Syracuse and opened his own office three years later. His most famous building was the estate of John Ringling, who belonged to the circus dynasty, but had made his money mainly in real estate transactions. Baum also designed buildings on the campus of his former university. He died of a heart attack in Times Square.

Since 1909, the region of the Saratoga mineral water springs in New York has been a state park. Starting in 1928, the facility has been upgraded with new buildings. Baum designed the “Victoria Pool and Recreation Center” and the bottling plant for the mineral water. The Recreation Group is a complex of four neo-Georgian brick buildings that, with the interconnected Roman arcades, encloses an open-air courtyard with wide terraces and the pool itself. The four pavilions served as an entrance building, changing area of the bath and the gym, respectively as well as a golf clubhouse. The swimming pool was the first heated bath in the US.