Former NY Saloons II Oct 2007

A most interesting source of information on the saloons, whorehouses and gambling dens in New York is Vices Of A Big City, An Expose of Existing Menaces to Church and Home in New York City, published in 1890.

Golden Swan Park is the site of the former Golden Swan Saloon, more popularly referred to as The Bucket of Blood or The Hell Hole. It was a headquarters of the Hudson Dusters gang and the favorite saloon of playwright Eugene O'Neil who took the setting of The Iceman cometh from the Bucket of Blood.

Kenny's Castaways at 157 Bleeker was formerly the home of The Slide saloon. The 1890 description says that"The place is filled nightly with from 100 to 300 people, most of whom are males, but are not worthy of the name of man. They are degraded and addicted to vices which are inhuman and unnatural." In other words, it was a gay bar.

57 Great Jones Street was the location of the New Brighton Dance Hall and headquarters of Paul Kelly and the Five Pointers gang. I am going to try out Great Jones Eats. It looks like a sleazy joint on the outside but is quite attractive on the inside (54 Great Jones St, 212-674-9304)Example, on the lunch menu Mission Beef Chili 8.95With The Works 9.95

Cooper Union had some weird art project whose significance escapes me, of stacking ice blocks in a rectangular enclosure and letting them melt.

The former Paresis Hall saloon is now the headquarters of The Village Voice. This was a short lived gay bar owned by Paul Kelly of the Five Pointers.

Bill McGlory's The Armory at 158 Hester was long torn down to make way for a massive non descriptive building housing The Chinese Mission Society. Personally I would rather have a saloon there than a church. No trace can be seen of Dry Dollar Sullivan's saloon at 116 Centre St. This was headquarters of the Wyo's gang. The site has been swallowed up by an expansion of the Tombs. A gangster named Piker Ryan was arrested while carrying a menu of the Whyo's services:

Punching $2
Both eyes blacked $4
Nose and jaw broke $10
Jacked out $15
Ear chawed off $15
Leg or arm broke $19
Shot in leg $25
Stab $25
Doing the big job $100 and up

I was intrigued to try the Cha Cha cafe, which has a backyard pation, but I was too stuffed from just having eaten brunch at the Pipers Kilt with my son Adam and his girlfriend Geraldine.

Former NY Saloons II Oct 2007