Yippie Museum and Café
9 Bleecker Street | NoHo | built 1884
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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.
- 1884
Frederick C. Withers designs a store at 9 Bleecker Street for Aaron Wright
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In 1884 the builder E.H. Day constructed this store for Aaron Wright, to designs by the English-born architect Frederick C. Withers. Withers had come to the United States at Andrew Jackson Downing's invitation, later worked with Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted, and co-designed the Jefferson Market Courthouse with Vaux. The store went up as older houses in the area were being converted to commercial use or replaced by lofts.
“Frederick C. Withers and constructed by builder by E.H. Day in 1884 for owner Aaron Wright…”
- 1973
The Yippies make 9 Bleecker their informal headquarters, and the Yipster Times is published here
From 1973 the building at 9 Bleecker served as an informal headquarters of the Youth International Party, the Yippies. Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin and others had founded the group in the mid-1960s as an anti-war protest movement that mixed political theater with outrageous humor. The alternative magazine Yipster Times was published here, in a building that had held fur businesses in the 1920s and a trucking company until about 1960, and whose upper stories loft dwellers had taken over by the mid-1960s.
- 1999
Dana Beal, who lived at 9 Bleecker, starts the Global Marijuana March in 1999
A former resident of 9 Bleecker Street, Dana Beal, launched the Global Marijuana March in 1999. The Yippies also organized smoke-ins and marches for medical marijuana from the building. Their newspaper, put out from the third floor, was renamed Overthrow in 1979 and lasted until 1989, while the marches carried on well after it.
Source: localeastvillage.com
- 2011
The Yippie Museum Café reopens with a new look after 30 cats are rehomed from upstairs
By December 2011 the Yippie Museum Café at 9 Bleecker had reopened after a summer closing, with a renovated basement, fresh paint and a revamped menu that included vegan cookies and empanadas. Michael McKenna, brought in that spring to give the place a makeover, opened up the front room so passersby could see in and found homes for the 30 cats living upstairs after complaints about a strange smell. A first full exhibit of Yippie artifacts was planned for the next spring, and French-press coffee still cost 75 cents.
Source: localeastvillage.com
- 2014
The Yippies vacate 9 Bleecker after 41 years while a foreclosure fight over the building continues
On January 17, 2014 the Yippies had to vacate the building that had been their home for 41 years while the litigation over it continued. The Times reported in 2013 that a lawyer for the mortgage holder, Centech, said Yippie Holdings, which had bought the building with a nonprofit called the National AIDS Brigade, had missed payments on its $1.4 million mortgage for more than five years. A lawyer for Yippie Holdings said payments had been rejected as part of a plan to take over the building. A boxing gym, Overthrow Boxing Club, was announced for the space.
Source: evgrieve.com
- 2024
Overthrow, the boxing gym in the old Yippie building, closes as the owner lists it for $6.6 million
Overthrow, the boxing gym that had occupied the three-level building since the Yippies left in 2014 and took its name from one of their newspapers, announced it would close after ten years, with its last day on November 7, 2024. It cited debt taken on during and after Covid, a lease it could no longer afford, and the owner's decision to sell. The owner's asking price was $6.6 million.
Source: evgrieve.com
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