A. M. Loryea

[1] Still a very young man with a sense of adventure, Loryea decided to leave the South to attempt to establish himself on the Pacific coast.

Loryea's patent medicine and banking ventures did not prove successful and his fortune was dissipated, causing him to relocate back to San Francisco.

[1] Upon his return to San Francisco, Loryea decided to open a Turkish bath (hammam) on Grant Avenue, working in partnership with another local doctor.

[1] His business associate, a certain Dr. Trask, soon left the partnership, but Loryea continued to own and manage the Grant Avenue hammam for several years, eventually selling it to open a new facility located on Post Street, San Francisco, and another in New York City.

[1] A.M. Loryea died April 24, 1893, after an extended illness at the Rural Health Retreat, located three miles outside St. Helena, California.

[1] At the time of his death, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Loryea had left a "valuable estate," ostensibly generated by his bathhouses and other business ventures.

[10] This was later revealed to be untrue, with the bathhouse registered in the name of his second wife, Esther, and the remainder of his estate consisted of little more than "a gold watch and a few other personal belongings.