Kenny's Castaways
157 Bleecker Street | Greenwich Village | built 1835
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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.
- 1890
Frank Stevenson's basement club The Slide draws 100 to 300 patrons a night
By 1890 Frank Stevenson's The Slide, in the basement at 157 Bleecker Street, was popularly called New York's worst dive because of the effeminate men who gathered there. The New York Press reported in May 1890 that 100 to 300 people filled it nightly, and local papers attacked it from 1890 to 1892. The landmarks report draws on George Chauncey's history of gay New York.
- 1892
Police close The Slide and its proprietor is convicted of keeping a disorderly house
A press campaign against The Slide succeeded in 1892, when police closed the basement club at 157 Bleecker Street and its proprietor was convicted of running a disorderly house. The author Edmund White later set a scene at the club in his 2007 historical novel Hotel de Dream.
- 1901
Pietro De Silvestri keeps a bar at 157 Bleecker Street between 1901 and 1904
Pietro De Silvestri, born in Arona, Italy, in 1866, ran a bar at this address from 1901 to 1904. Village Preservation says the bar's name and almost everything else about him is unknown, though he likely had help from the South Village figure Luigi Fugazy. The address later held Kenny's Castaways and then the wine bar Caroll Place.
Source: Village Preservation
- 1904
Banker Luigi Fugazy buys the house and runs his Italian immigrant business from it
On September 21, 1904, the Italian-American banker Luigi Fugazy bought 157 Bleecker Street. Called "Papa Fugazy," he had emigrated in 1869 and ran a bank, a steamship ticket agency, a notary practice and a letter-writing and translation service for Italian immigrants. He conducted these businesses from his home here and died in the house in 1930.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1930
Thousands line Bleecker Street for the funeral of Luigi Fugazy
Luigi Fugazy died at his Bleecker Street home on August 6, 1930, aged 91. On August 9 his body was carried from the house to St. Anthony of Padua Church, with thousands lining the sidewalks and more than 1,000 people inside. Congressman Fiorello La Guardia and other city officials attended.
“Thousands of people lined the sidewalks as his body was conveyed from his home to the church ... Congressman Fiorello La Guardia…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1976
Kenny's Castaways moves to 157 Bleecker Street and stays 36 years
Kenny's Castaways, a supper club that had opened on the Upper East Side in 1967, relocated to this address in 1976. It booked both new and established performers; Bruce Springsteen, Patti Smith, Willie Nelson, Phish and the New York Dolls all played its stage. The club shut in 2012.
“In 1976, Kenny's Castaways supper club moved to this location from its original spot on the Upper East Side, where it had opened in 1967.”
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