Kettle of Fish

114 MacDougal Street | Greenwich Village | built 1900

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.

1900
June 7
John Philip Voelker builds a six-story buff-brick tenement for twelve families
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Eugene Gerbereux commissioned John Philip Voelker to design a Renaissance Revival tenement here. Though the permit was filed in 1899, Department of Buildings dockets show work starting on June 7, 1900 and finishing on October 31. It was built to house twelve families above ground-floor stores, in buff brick and terra cotta with round-arched openings at the sixth story.
“…construction is noted in the Department of Building dockets as beginning on June 7, 1900, with a completion date of October 31, 1900... tenement for 12 families with stores…”
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
1950
The Kettle of Fish bar opens here and becomes a hangout for Beat writers and folk singers
From 1950 to 1986 this address held the Kettle of Fish, a bar that drew Beat Generation writers and poets along with folk singers who dropped in between sets at the neighboring coffeehouses. Patrons included Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Edie Sedgwick and Andy Warhol. One well-known photograph of Jack Kerouac shows the bar's neon BAR sign. The bar moved to West 3rd Street in 1986 and to 59 Christopher Street in 1998.
“…from 1950 to 1986 this was the location of the Kettle of Fish, a popular bar frequented by writers and poets of the Beat Generation and folk singers…”
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

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