Alvarado Hot Springs was a 20th-century geothermal well in Los Angeles County, California, United States. A bathhouse was built next to the water and a therapeutic spa was operated on the site for several decades.
The source of the water was a 5,000 feet (1,500m) large-diameter petroleum test well drilled that yielded hot water and natural gas.[2] On November 7, 1924,[3] a six-inch well bore hit hot water at 3,400 feet (1,000m) and gas at 4,240 feet (1,290m).[4] The water was pumped up to a tank for recreational-therapeutic use and the gas was used to heat the bathhouse.[2] The well was drilled and owned by rancher William P. Alvarado.[4][2] Alvarado also piped the natural gas to his house, a mile from the well site, for use in cooking and lighting, and combined the water with water from other sources for use in agricultural irrigation.[4]
The bathhouse was located just off Fifth Avenue, roughly three miles southeast of the town limits of La Puente.[5][4] As described in 1926, the Alvarado Hot Springs spa was on the far slope of the Alvarado Ranch "in the hills about a mile and one-half west of the Otterbein road that runs south from Valley boulevard...The route to the springs is fairly circuitous but well signed and the road leads at last to a towering wooden oil well derrick mounted on a knoll from which much of the valley and Old Baldy in the distance Is visible."[3] There were four baths for men and three for women, as well as sweat rooms.[3]
1928 edition of USGS La Brea quadrangle map
Alvarado Hot Springs and Seminole Hot Springs were the two major therapeutic hot springs spas within Los Angeles County as of 1937.[6] The bathhouse, situated on about 20 acres of land,[7] was still in business as of 1961, street address 1880 E. 5th Street in La Puente, California.[8] The former site of the well lies within a residential neighborhood in Rowland Heights.[9]
1 2 Higgins, Chris T.; Therberge, Albert E. Jr.; Ikelman, Joy A. (1980). Geothermal Resources of California(PDF) (Map). NOAA National Geophysical Center. Sacramento: California Department of Mines and Geology.
