Small's Paradise

200 West 135th Street | also 2296 Adam C Powell Boulevard | Harlem | built 1924

Open on the map4 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

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.

  1. 1925

    October 26

    Ed Smalls opens Small's Paradise nightclub in the basement

    Ed Smalls opened Small's Paradise at 2294 Seventh Avenue, in an office building's basement, with a gala on October 26, 1925. He wanted a club that welcomed his Harlem neighbors and also appealed to people from downtown. It was the one well-known Harlem nightclub of its day that was Black-owned and integrated, and its waiters danced the Charleston or roller-skated while serving.

    Source: Wikipedia

  2. 1942

    A young Malcolm X waits tables at Small's Paradise

    Malcolm X, who liked the atmosphere at Small's Paradise, worked there as a waiter from 1942 to 1943. Around the same time, Ed Smalls opened the club's Orchid Room at street level.

    Source: Wikipedia

  3. 1951

    February 23

    W.E.B. Du Bois celebrates his 83rd birthday at Small's Paradise

    A banquet for the civil rights activist W. E. B. Du Bois was held at Small's on February 23, 1951, for his 83rd birthday. It had been planned for the Essex House, which canceled it during the McCarthy era, and the club stepped in as the venue.

    Source: Wikipedia

  4. 2004

    Thurgood Marshall Academy opens on the site of Small's Paradise

    Small's Paradise, the longest-operating nightclub in Harlem, had fallen vacant by 1986. The Abyssinian Development Corporation bought the structure and renovated it, adding floors, and the Thurgood Marshall Academy for Learning and Social Change opened there in 2004. The renovation removed every trace of the club.

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

Nearby

All 46 buildings with stories in Harlem