Gerken Saloon Building

385 Avenue of the Americas | also 135 Waverly Place | West Village | built 1877

Open on the map5 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. 1877

    D. & J. Jardine design a flats building with a liquor store below for Carsten Gerken

    Carsten Gerken, who lived in the building and kept his liquor store on the ground floor facing the Avenue, commissioned architects D. & J. Jardine to design this corner house in 1877. It was planned for three families, with the apartments entered from Waverly Place at No. 135. The landmarks report notes Queen Anne touches, including a sunburst motif on the cornice fascia and in the large corner brackets.

    “…erected for Carsten Gerken, who lived here and had his liquor store below, on the Avenue.”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1877

    The Gerken brothers run a corner saloon by unusually strict rules

    Carsten Gerken and his brother John kept their saloon within the letter of the law, according to The Sun. Women were barred from the back room, and only women known as respectable neighbors could have a pail of beer filled at the side vestibule. The brothers refused beer to men whose wives came looking for them. On summer nights they set chairs under the tree on Waverly Place for evening beer and Rhine wine, and neighbors also used the saloon as an informal employment agency.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1879

    Comedian Tony Hart and a Theatre Comique treasurer are among the first tenants

    Several early tenants came from the theater world. In 1879 they included actor William Gray; John E. Cannon, the treasurer of the Theatre Comique, which stood at 514 Broadway; and Anthony J. Cannon, who performed as Tony Hart. Hart was half of the comedy team Harrigan & Hart, which was appearing at the Theatre Comique at the time.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1905

    Members of the Paul Kelly Gang brawl at the saloon and threaten the policeman who arrests one

    Its reputation slipped once Ella Gerken rented the saloon to Charles Neubaur. The New York Evening Post reported on August 18, 1905, that a crowd of roughs thought to belong to the Paul Kelly Gang was thrown out of the bar, came back, and started a free-for-all. Policeman Francis J. Upton arrested one man after a hard fight in which he was struck with a brass knob. Upton later showed a magistrate a letter from the gang saying they would lay for him.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 1926

    August 12

    Lightning strikes the penny arcade in the former saloon during a citywide storm

    By 1924, during Prohibition, the old saloon space had become a penny arcade. During a violent series of thunderstorms on August 12, 1926, lightning hit the arcade at 385 Sixth Avenue, and the scare was enough that someone rang in a fire alarm. The New York Times reported that no damage was done.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

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