Donnelly Brothers' Saloon building
597 Hudson Street | also 2 Bethune Street, 6 Bethune Street | West Village | built 1893
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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.
- 1893
Developer James W. Ketchum replaces a four-story brick house with a five-story store-and-apartment building
James W. Ketchum bought the old brick residence at the corner of Bethune Street and Abingdon Square in 1893 and had architect Thomas E. Goodwin design a five-story Romanesque Revival replacement in yellow brick. Its apartments were advertised with baths and other improvements, and a five-room corner unit rented for $27 a month. It came to carry three addresses, 14 Abingdon Square and 597 Hudson Street, plus 6 Bethune Street for the western store.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1896
A plainclothes officer arrests saloonkeeper Thomas Donnelly over a second beer served without a sandwich
Under the new Raines Law, the Donnelly brothers declared their corner saloon a hotel and served sandwiches with Sunday drinks. On July 26, 1896, a plainclothes policeman named Geraghty ordered a beer and a sandwich, lingered, then asked for another beer, which came with no food, and arrested Thomas Donnelly. Two days later a magistrate agreed the second beer was legal because Geraghty had never left, but still held Donnelly on $1,000 bail based on the officer's sworn account.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1899
The Donnelly brothers buy the building that houses their saloon and tie themselves to one brewery
Michael and Thomas Donnelly, Irish-born brothers who leased the corner space and lived upstairs with relatives, bought the whole building in 1899. Like many saloon owners, they agreed to sell only one brewery's beers and ales, and for years that was Bernheimer & Schwartz. In July 1915 the brothers transferred title to their sisters Ellen and Catharine, with Ellen holding the saloon's liquor license since 1908.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1922
A bartender is shot dead in a Prohibition-era holdup of the Donnelly saloon
On the night of November 30, 1922, three armed men held up the saloon. Bartender Michael Nesil smashed a bottle over the head of the man at the register, and the gunman shot him twice in the stomach and took $30 from the till. A veteran from the VFW post next door grabbed the gunman outside, but the pistol jammed and the three escaped by car. Nesil died at St. Vincent's Hospital after midnight, and fingerprints from a 1923 arrest linked Ed Sheeran to the shooting.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1936
Police arrest tenants Walter and Annetta Forster in a life insurance fraud ring
On January 6, 1936, Walter Forster and his wife Annetta, who lived in the building, were arrested with four others in a case the Long Island Daily Press described as among the largest insurance fraud rings yet exposed. Under a false name, Forster had taken medical exams and bought 30 policies worth more than $1 million. The scheme unraveled when a widow tried to collect on a legitimate policy and found the name on her husband's death certificate had been changed.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
Further reading
- Donnelly Brothers' Saloon - 597 Hudson Street (14 Abingdon Square)Daytonian in Manhattan
- Then & Now photos: 597 Hudson Street (aka 14 Abingdon Square; 6 Bethune Street)Village Preservation: Greenwich Village Then & Now
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