Lenox Lounge

Overview

Art Deco Harlem jazz bar at 288 Lenox Avenue, listed in the Negro Motorist Green Book from 1938, home to Billie Holiday's reserved booth and mid-century performances by Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Dizzy Gillespie, closed December 31, 2012 after a rent dispute; its crimson-and-chrome facade was stripped and the building demolished in 2017.

The Lenox Lounge occupied a converted 1880s brownstone at 284–288 Lenox Avenue, between 124th and 125th Streets, in the heart of Harlem. Its origins are contested: most sources credit its founding to Ralph Greco in 1939, though the Untapped Cities account names Dominic Greco and places the actual opening around 1942, the discrepancy may reflect the founder and a family member, or a distinction between the building's 1939 alteration and its licensed opening. What is not disputed is the physical space: a 1,200-square-foot room with a crimson enameled-steel facade framed in chrome, an octagonal picture window, bronzed mirrors, stenciled walls, indirect lighting, frosted-glass fins, intricately tiled floors, and a ceiling upholstered in tufted scarlet leatherette, Art Deco built to dazzle on an avenue that was, at mid-century, one of the most important nightlife corridors in Black America. Through a set of early-1940s swinging glass-and-wood double doors in the back lay the Zebra Room, named for its zebra-print upholstery, anchored by an ancient Steinway grand piano, and served by a cover charge that separated it from the front bar. From the early 1940s through the early 1960s the Lenox Lounge was one of Harlem's premier jazz rooms. Billie Holiday had a reserved booth in the Zebra Room ('Lady Day's booth') where she sat between sets, and the room hosted performances by Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, and Thelonious Monk during the bebop years. The bar also served as a social and intellectual gathering place: Harlem Renaissance figures Langston Hughes and James Baldwin were regulars, as were Zora Neale Hurston and Ralph Ellison; Malcolm X frequented the lounge and it was here, according to multiple sources, that Alex Haley conducted the interviews that would become The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965). The Lenox Lounge appeared in the Negro Motorist Green Book as a recommended tavern from 1938 through at least 1955, providing a documented safe haven for Black travelers and neighborhood residents during the Jim Crow decades. From the mid-1960s through the 1980s the lounge declined; live music largely disappeared and the room fell into disrepair. Alvin Reed Sr. (a retired postal worker and police officer, raised in Harlem) purchased the club in 1988 from the Greco family for $85,000, reportedly after seeing an advertisement in the Amsterdam News and refinancing his Queens home to fund the acquisition. He and his wife Ethel stabilized the bar through a period of renewed Harlem investment, then invested heavily in a full restoration: working with architects Yui & Bloch, Reed spent $600,000 (including $450,000 from the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone) on a meticulous year-long renovation that ran from September 1999 to March 2000, the only intentional closure in the club's history. The restored Lounge brought back jazz nightly (Houston Person, Wynton Marsalis, Savion Glover, Lillias White, Anika Noni Rose performed in the revived room), earned 'Best of the Best' recognition in the 2002 Zagat Nightlife Guide, and became a location of choice for film and television: the Zebra Room was dressed as a key scene in the Mad Men pilot 'Smoke Gets in Your Eyes'; both the facade and interior appeared in American Gangster (2007), with Denzel Washington and Cuba Gooding Jr. shooting in the Zebra Room; and Madonna's 'Secret' video (1994) was filmed on Lenox Avenue and at the club. On December 31, 2012, the Lenox Lounge closed permanently when its lease expired. Landlord Ricky Edmonds had proposed doubling the monthly rent from $10,000 to $20,000; Reed, who had accumulated back rent and faced an unsurmountable increase, could not agree to terms. At midnight on New Year's Eve, Reed directed workers to strip the bar down: the crimson facade, neon sign, mahogany bar, banquet seating, light fixtures, and swinging double doors were all removed and transported three blocks north, to a former beauty parlor at 333 Lenox Avenue, where Reed had signed a new lease. Richard Notar (managing partner of the Nobu restaurant group) briefly took the original space with plans for a Notar Jazz Club, but abandoned the project after the gutting. The $25 million lawsuit filed by the landlord ended without full recovery of the fixtures; Reed's attempt to reopen at 333 Lenox never materialized, stalled by funding shortfalls and permit delays. The original building at 288 Lenox was demolished in May 2017 and replaced by a four-story mixed-use structure. The Landmarks Preservation Commission had never protected the building, one of fewer than 5% of Harlem structures with any landmark status, a disparity that preservation advocates identified as a systemic failure tied to decades of institutional neglect of Black cultural heritage.

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