High-res builtmanhattan: 1817James Brown HouseArchitect: UnknownLocation: 326 Spring Street First it was a fashionable townhouse in a nice, suburban neighborhood, built for a tobacconist who may or may not have been a black man. The nice suburban neighborhood declined as Manhattan neighborhoods often did, and the haute townhouse was transformed into a brewery, restaurant, speakeasy, and plain-old dive bar, serving the sailors and longshoreman who worked nearby. After accruing nearly a hundred years of divey aura, it was purchased by a guy who took the time to restore it when he wasn’t tending bar or bringing in avant-entertainment to the place. There are, perhaps, Federal-style townhouses in the city whose restorations were perhaps more sweated-over than this one’s. There are Federal-style townhouses that are used and used-up: those on Canal Street (which we’ll cover later) come to mind. But this is the only one that seems lived in to me: as a neighborhood bar, it achieves an understanding with the people who frequent it that a trophy house or a discount electronics store can never really enjoy. (Not overtly, anyway.) It is loved. Certainly loved by me; this is my favorite bar in the city.

builtmanhattan:

1817
James Brown House

Architect: Unknown
Location: 326 Spring Street

First it was a fashionable townhouse in a nice, suburban neighborhood, built for a tobacconist who may or may not have been a black man. The nice suburban neighborhood declined as Manhattan neighborhoods often did, and the haute townhouse was transformed into a brewery, restaurant, speakeasy, and plain-old dive bar, serving the sailors and longshoreman who worked nearby. After accruing nearly a hundred years of divey aura, it was purchased by a guy who took the time to restore it when he wasn’t tending bar or bringing in avant-entertainment to the place.

There are, perhaps, Federal-style townhouses in the city whose restorations were perhaps more sweated-over than this one’s. There are Federal-style townhouses that are used and used-up: those on Canal Street (which we’ll cover later) come to mind. But this is the only one that seems lived in to me: as a neighborhood bar, it achieves an understanding with the people who frequent it that a trophy house or a discount electronics store can never really enjoy. (Not overtly, anyway.) It is loved.

Certainly loved by me; this is my favorite bar in the city.

Notes

  1. zolf reblogged this from markcoatney and added:
    Amen, brother. The place to be at 3 o’clock on a Saturday for beers and sirloin burgers. Notice none of us are calling...
  2. timkimknot reblogged this from markcoatney
  3. rickywwalker reblogged this from markcoatney
  4. markcoatney reblogged this from builtmanhattan
  5. builtmanhattan posted this