![]() ![]() A New York Daily News article in 1967 noted that “Billy’s Gaslight Bar” was being forced to move from its First Avenue and 56th Street location because the original spot was marked for demolition. (Not to be confused with another Victorian-era saloon, Bill’s Gay Nineties, long at 57 East 54th Street until it was transformed into the more upscale Bill’s Townhouse.) City directories note that “Billy’s Bar” was at 1020 First Avenue. Tracking the story of Billie’s means accepting that Abbott may have gotten the name of the bar wrong. Changing New York, the book containing Abbott’s WPA-era New York City photos, states that Billie’s “stood at the corner of a block dominated by the abandoned buildings of Peter Doelger’s Brewery, which before Prohibition had kept Billie’s and many similar well stocked.”īillie’s patrons were “recent immigrants who lived in nearby tenements and worked in the factories and slaughterhouses along the East River.” Billy’s, not Billie’s, in a 1940 city directory The story of Billie’s is the story of a neighborhood, you could say. Nor is there a clear paper trail explaining what happened to this bar and restaurant worthy of Abbott’s artistic eye. Visit First Avenue and 56th Street today, of course, and you won’t find Billie’s. It looks like a true neighborhood joint, and perhaps the only change from the Gilded Age to the Depression is that women are allowed in (definitely a no-no in the 19th and early 20th centuries). This remarkably preserved late 19th century-style saloon was captured by Berenice Abbott in four photos she took in 1936-when Billie’s grandson, William Condron, Jr., was running the place. Which makes sense, as the bar first opened in either 1871 or 1880 (depending on the source) by a Michael Condron at 1020 First Avenue, at 56th Street. ![]() The hand-carved bar, antique fixtures, brass handles, tiled floor, and simple, red-checked tablecloths evoke the Gilded Age. Wouldn’t you love to go back in time and have a drink at Billie’s Bar? ![]()
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