Webster Hall

Overview

The oldest continuously operating assembly hall in New York (built for Polish cigar maker Charles Goldstein in 1886) whose seven distinct lives encompass labor and anarchist organizing, drag masquerade balls, Latin dance and folk hootenannies, a decade as RCA's East Coast recording complex, Jerry Brandt's The Ritz, the Ballinger brothers' multi-floor rave-era nightclub, and a 2019 relaunch as a corporate concert hall. Designated an NYC landmark in 2008.

Webster Hall occupies a two-building Queen Anne and Renaissance Revival complex at 119–125 East 11th Street, designed by architect Charles Rentz Jr. and completed in 1886–1892 for Charles Goldstein, a Polish immigrant cigar maker who operated it as a straightforward hall-for-hire until his death in 1898. From its first decade the hall was a center of working-class and immigrant political life: garment-trade unions held strikes and fund drives there, Emma Goldman organized child-welfare fundraisers and birth-control rallies on its floors, the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union established strike headquarters in 1916, and the founding convention of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America took place there in December 1914. Prohibition did not noticeably slow the drinking; surviving accounts suggest the hall ran openly wet, earning it the soubriquet 'the Devil's Playhouse' from the socialist magazine The Masses. In the 1910s–1920s it became famous for its Bohemian masquerade balls, annual bacchanals that drew Marcel Duchamp, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Langston Hughes, Man Ray, and Charles Demuth, and that served as a gathering place for the city's early lesbian and gay community, who attended in drag and, by the early 1920s, organized their own events in the hall. Five fires between 1902 and 1949 damaged the building repeatedly, destroying the original mansard roof. From 1949 the hall pivoted toward Latin music, hosting Tito Puente, Tito Rodriguez, and other mambo-era bandleaders, and through the early 1950s it ran folk 'hootenannies' with Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie that helped seed the founding of the magazine Sing Out!. In 1953 RCA Records recognized the Grand Ballroom's unusual acoustic properties and purchased the building for use as its primary East Coast recording complex, Webster Hall Studios. Over fifteen years the room captured Elvis Presley's 'Hound Dog' sessions (31 takes in a single July 1956 afternoon), Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, Harry Belafonte, Carol Channing's Hello, Dolly! original cast album, Bob Dylan's debut harmonica recording (on Belafonte's Midnight Special, February 2, 1962), and Bill Evans's Grammy-winning solo piano album Alone (recorded September–October 1968). In 1970 the Galician cultural organization Unity Gallega (Casa Galicia of New York) purchased the property; they remain the building's owner today. On May 1, 1980, promoter Jerry Brandt reopened the hall as The Ritz, a showcase rock venue notable for installing one of the country's first large-format video walls (a 30-foot projection screen costing $120,000) above its stage. U2 played their first American concert there on December 6, 1980; the bill over the following decade included Prince, Tina Turner, Metallica, Guns N' Roses, Public Image Limited (whose May 1981 show triggered a riot), Run-DMC, Aerosmith, and Afrika Bambaataa with Rock Steady Crew (supporting Bow Wow Wow, August 1981, a crossover moment between downtown punk and uptown hip-hop documented by Kool Lady Blue). The Ritz relocated to the former Studio 54 building at 254 West 54th Street in April 1989. The Ballinger brothers (Lon, Steve, and Doug, from Toronto) acquired the lease and reopened the hall under its historic name on October 2, 1992, after a restoration that updated audio, video, and lighting while recreating original color schemes. Their model was multi-floor simultaneity: rave and house music in the Grand Ballroom (1,500 capacity), Latin and hip-hop in the Marlin Room (600), and reggae in the Studio (400), allowing a weekend night to contain three distinct scenes in 40,000 square feet. Gerard McNamee served as director of operations from 1993 through 1998. The club hosted Madonna's pajama party celebrating her 'Bedtime Story' video (1995), a Mick Jagger solo set filmed for broadcast (1993), and the launch party for Vibe magazine (August 17, 1993). By Pollstar's count, Webster Hall was the third-highest-grossing club venue in the world in its peak years, and in 2016 it won Pollstar's Nightclub of the Year. Brooklyn Sports and Entertainment (an AEG subsidiary) and The Bowery Presents acquired operating rights in February 2017; the hall closed August 9, 2017 (Skrillex headlined with a Dog Blood reunion set) and underwent a $10 million renovation. It reopened April 26, 2019, with Jay-Z's 'B-Sides 2' concert. The building was designated a New York City landmark on March 18, 2008, on the basis of its Queen Anne and Renaissance Revival architecture and its role in the labor, political, social, and cultural history of the East Village.

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