Saying Goodbye To: SideWalk Cafe & Hells Angels Clubhouse

Today will be the SideWalk Cafe's last day after 33 years on Avenue A. For the last twenty-five of those years, SideWalk has been home to the annual Anti-folk Festival, which will have its last performance at the venue tonight as well as the final open mic night (one of the longest running open-mics in the city). For many, the SideWalk Cafe was the home of the anti-folk scene, providing a stage for the burgeoning careers of many, including Jeffrey Lewis, the Moldy Peaches, Beck, Regina Spektor, and more. While ownership of SideWalk changed hands last year, it was unclear what would be come of it until recently. For those who want a last taste, there are performances going on all day starting at 3pm, with closing ceremonies around midnight.

Yesterday, LES residents learned that the "safest block in NY" will have to relinquish that title, as the Hells Angels prepare to sell their clubhouse at 77 E. 3rd Street. Holding court on this block for 50 years, the Hells Angels faced off numbers of attempts by the state and federal governments to remove them in the 80's and 90's. Gone are the days of fighting cops on the street, in recent years the Hells Angels have been involved in disputes with their neighbors, tourists, and the city, as well as internal strife over the ownership of the building (reportedly purchased by the "The Church of Angels" non-profit group for $1900 in the late 70's). Nobody has been able to reach any HA members for comment, with EV Grieve reporting that Ron Kuby (notable defense attorney and legal support for the Hells Angels in the past) was unaware of any sale. Technically, the building itself has not officially sold, only the form preceding the sale has been filed, we will have to wait to find out when it closes or what will happen to the clubhouse.

Comments

NYCHA's "NextGen Neighborhood" Towers & the Fate of the "White House"

In a previous post I discussed the city's plan to demolish the LaGuardia Bathhouse building, one of the oldest public baths in NYC, an attempt in-part to save face in the wake of the recently unveiled plans to raise the East River Park. I anticipate similar news for the "White House", the former Rivington Street Public Baths, which sits squatly in the middle of the Baruch Houses, maybe a 15 minute walk from the LaGuardia Bathhouse building. A short history: At 118 years old, the Baruch Bathhouse building is not only the oldest public bathhouse in the city, but also the first of its kind to be opened in New York. It's namesake, Dr. Simon Baruch, was an Eastern European Jew who moved to South Carolina in 1855 (at 15 years old) to live with, and work for, a wealthy German-Jewish family. After receiving his medical degree in 1862, Baruch served as a surgeon in the f*cking Confederate army (even treating soldiers for weeks after the defeat at Gettys

Union of Orthodox Rabbis Building Bought and Emptied –– Artifacts Remain

Wednesday afternoon, a childhood friend of mine –– whose family has been at their apartment on East Broadway since 1956 –– got in touch with me about what sounded like people clearing out the buildings next to his at 237 and 235 East Broadway (Sharis Adath Israel and the former home of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis respectively). When I arrived on the scene that same afternoon, the doors to 235 East Broadway were being shut and two Junklugger trucks were just pulling away from the curb, stacked with what looked like large amounts of furniture. East Broadway was littered with papers that had blown off the back of these trucks, and as I started to pick them up I saw that many of these documents represented records of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis, correspondence in Hebrew and Yiddish, newspaper clippings, pages from religious books, all of which dating back decades. I called Junkluggers and asked if they would be able to intercept any of these documents before they were inevitab

Paper Bag Players Sign Disappears From 185 East Broadway

After almost forty years, the simple block letter sign reading "Paper Bag Players" was taken out of the window at 185 East Broadway, almost a year after the building sold for 6.1 million dollars. Founded in 1958 (four years after the start of Joe Papp's "New York Shakespeare Festival", later Shakespeare in the Park, which first held productions at the nearby East River Amphitheater) the Paper Bag Players are a non-profit children's theater group which in many respects attempted to meld aspects of alternative theater with programming for children's education, arriving at 185 East Broadway around 1981. I called and spoke to somebody at Paper Bag Players a week ago and was told they had relocated uptown, having permanently left their space at 185 East Broadway after the building was sold. I wish to speak briefly on the history of 185 East Broadway, but in doing so must include 183 and 187 East Broadway as well (to the right and left

A Hidden Lower East Side

Search This Blog