Pyramid Club
101 Avenue A | East Village | built 1880
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1859
Peter Doegler operates a brewery on the lot from 1859 to 1863
Before the present tenement existed, the lot at 101 Avenue A held an earlier building where Peter Doegler ran a brewery. According to the Landmarks Preservation Commission's East Village district report, he stayed only about four years before shifting his business uptown to 55th Street. Doegler later put up a new building on the lot, designed by William Jose, and its ground floor became a German bar and meeting hall for neighbors.
- 1876
A German community hall opens on the ground floor of the new building
The Peter Doelger brewery owned the building when it went up in the 1870s. Its ground floor served Kleindeutschland as a meeting hall, starting with Kern's Hall, which held a celebratory supper when Tompkins Square Park opened in 1879. The American Federation of Labor met here in 1888, and after the General Slocum disaster in 1904 the community held a memorial service in the hall.
Source: Village Preservation
- 1886
Labor delegates plan their state convention at 101 Avenue A
In 1886 representatives of the American Federation of Labor from New York City and Brooklyn held a planning meeting at 101 Avenue A for the coming state convention. The federation had been founded only two years earlier, in 1884. Village Preservation's building history notes that rooms like this one were popular gathering spots for the neighborhood's German-American community.
- 1906
The hall becomes Leppig's, after John Leppig Jr., known as the "Mayor of Avenue A"
In 1906 the ground-floor hall took the name Leppig's Hall, after John Leppig Jr., whom neighbors called the "Mayor of Avenue A." The hall had carried other names over the years, among them Kern's Hall, Shultz's Hall and Fritz's Hall. Two years before the change, in 1904, the room had hosted a memorial service for victims of the General Slocum disaster. The brewery kept ownership of the property until 1932.
- 1973
Percussionist Aziz Latif turns the hall into the jazz club Jazzboat
In 1973 percussionist Aziz Latif, who had played with Duke Ellington's band under the name Gaylord Emerson, opened the Jazzboat in the hall that had run through the late 1960s as the jazz club East Village In. Latif's Jazzboat booked musicians including Betty Carter, Sonny Fortune, and Archie Shepp until Bobby Bradley, Alan Mace, and Victor Sapienza turned the room into the Pyramid Club in 1979.
- 1981
The Pyramid relaunches as a hub for East Village drag and punk
The Pyramid Cocktail Lounge opened in 1979 but found its footing after a relaunch party on December 10, 1981. Under manager Brian Butterick it became a center of the drag, gay, punk and art scenes, with performers including Lady Bunny, Lypsinka and RuPaul, who first appeared here in 1982. Pyramid performers started Wigstock in Tompkins Square Park. The club closed for good on October 31, 2022.
Source: NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project
- 1982
A fire breaks out at the Pyramid on its six-month anniversary
Photographer Paula Swede, then 22 and studying at the International Center of Photography, recalled in an oral history that she wandered into the Pyramid in the summer of 1982 and found the club celebrating its six-month anniversary just as a fire broke out. She photographed performers from the Trockadero circle, including John Kelly, Ethyl Eichelberger and Larry Ray, on the fire truck.
Source: daily.redbullmusicacademy.com
- 1982
RuPaul gives his first New York City performance at the club
Drag performer RuPaul made his first New York City appearance at the Pyramid Club in 1982, years before Wigstock and his mainstream breakthrough. The booking reflected the club's role as an early stage for the East Village's drag and gay performance scene.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1985
Lady Bunny launches Wigstock out of the club's scene
On Labor Day 1985, Pyramid Club performer Lady Bunny hosted the first Wigstock festival in nearby Tompkins Square Park. The event grew directly out of the club's drag scene and became an annual East Village tradition.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1989
Nirvana makes its New York debut at the Pyramid Club
The New Music Seminar brought Nirvana to the Pyramid for its first New York City show, on July 18, 1989, on a bill with Cows, God Bullies, Lonely Moans and Surgery. The band performed a 14-song set. Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon had brought A&R executive Gary Gersh along, and he soon signed Nirvana to Geffen, the label that put out Nevermind in 1991.
Source: evgrieve.com
- 1992
Blacklips Performance Cult begins its Monday-midnight run at the Pyramid
In 1992 the theater troupe Blacklips, led by Anohni (then known as Antony Hegarty) and Johanna Constantine, moved from a tiny bar on 10th Street to the Pyramid after manager Brian Butterick ran into them, heard about their gothic theatrical shows and invited them over. Scripts were handed out a week ahead, read through on Monday afternoon and staged at midnight, running until at least 2 a.m. One set built from discarded Christmas trees left the club very flammable.
Source: daily.redbullmusicacademy.com
- 2012
The city landmarks the Pyramid's building as part of the East Village district
On October 9, 2012, the Landmarks Preservation Commission created the East Village/Lower East Side Historic District, and 101 Avenue A was included. A 2007 proposal to landmark the building alone, described as the first drag landmark, had not been adopted, and the commission's 2011 district plan first left the club's building out. Community groups pressed for a larger district, and the boundaries were widened to take it in.
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- Pyramid Club (New York City)Wikipedia
- 101 Avenue AVillage Preservation: East Village Building Blocks
Nearby
- 99 Avenue A1 entry
- 97 Avenue A1 entry
- 95 Avenue A2 entries
- 443 East 6th Street1 entry
- 441 East 6th Street1 entry
- 439 East 6th Street1 entry