Monday, March 28, 2011

Ghosts of Keller Hotel

from a 2008 post: NYT: "THE KELLER HOTEL, an old seaman’s inn. An Irish coal merchant constructed it in the late 1890s along a salty stretch of the Greenwich Village waterfront, at a time when the docks there were some of the busiest in the world. During the Depression, the Keller served as a flophouse for out-of-work sailors, who boozed and brawled in its ground-floor saloon. As the decades passed and economic forces pushed ships toward other ports, the West Side docks rotted, the Village deteriorated and a new clientele moved into the Keller. By the 1980s, the city was housing indigents upstairs, while the downstairs tenant was a gay leather bar, reputedly New York’s oldest. Then, in 1985, a real estate investor named William Gottlieb purchased the property for $1 million."
And it has sat empty ever since...........

10 comments:

sonia a. mascaro said...

Great photo, Ken Mac!
Love the texture of the facade and the building style.

Michelle said...

I like the perspective of this shot and the colors of the sign.

黄清华 Wong Ching Wah said...

I like this kind of angle, makes it look interesting !

Virginia said...

Oh KM you find just the right POV for these wonderful signs.

Lynette said...

Your photos never cease to amaze me. I am so happy to see them, not only because I like them so much, but also because I feel your joy at having taken them and your sadness at how too many of them are gone or are neglected. Your blog is the tops!

Kitty said...

very cool pov.
I have to say that sign looks like it's going to fall on someone's head!

I hope the developer rehabs the building but I doubt it. The brick work and detailing looks nice.

-K- said...

Sounds like it started out as a place where Eugene O'Neill drank and evolved into a place where Tennesee Williams drank.

Lowell said...

Fantastic history to this place. Can't imagine anyone buying it and letting it set vacant for 26 years!

Nicely-composed photo, with a NYC blue sky!

Banjo52 said...

I'll never understand how these things work, what people's motivations are . . .

Chand Mason said...

Youre so cool! I dont suppose Ive read anything like this before. So nice to find somebody with some original thoughts on this subject. realy thank you for starting this up. this website is something that is needed on the web, someone with a little originality. useful job for bringing something new to the internet!

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