James Brown House

Infobox_nrhp | name =James Brown House
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location= 326 Spring Street, Manhattan, New York City, New York State
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architecture= Federal architecture
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governing_body = Private

The James Brown House is a historic building in the Lower Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. It was built at some point in the early Nineteenth century.

Today, it is listed in the National Register of Historic Places, and is one of the few existing examples of Federal architecture in New York. Its ground level is the site of The Ear Inn, one of the oldest existing taverns in New York City.

History

The three-story house was built before 1812 and was originally the home of James Brown, an African-American United States Revolutionary War veteran, who was the proprietor of a tobacco store on the ground floor of the house. It is rumored that Brown is one of the soldiers near the front of the boat in Emanuel Leutze's iconic painting "Washington Crossing the Delaware."

In 1817, a tavern opened in the space, making it one of the oldest bars in New York City. Its proximity to the water made it popular with sailors and longshoremen. It had a brewery that was later turned into a restaurant.

At the time of the building's construction, the house was only several feet from the shoreline of the Hudson River, although subsequent urban development has since filled in land that has increased the distance to the shore.

After Brown sold the building to two apothecaries in the mid 1800s, the house was subsequently purchased in 1890 by an Irish immigrant named Thomas Cloke, who ran the tavern and sold beer and spirits to ships passing through New York's harbor. He was reported to be a successful businessman and was well regarded in the community.

Cloke sold the business in 1919 in anticipation of The 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibited the sale of alcohol.

During Prohibition, the restaurant became a speakeasy, while the upstairs floors were variously a boarding house, a headquarters for smugglers, and a brothel.

After Prohibition, the bar re-opened, but now existed as a business without a name. It was simply called "The Green Door," and catered to a clientele of waterfront workers, almost all of whom were hard-drinking regulars.

The area declined sharply during the mid Twentieth century, as urban decay turned the once-bustling area into a nearly abandoned district.

In 1969, the building was one of the earliest designations of the city's Landmarks Commission.

In the mid 1970s, a group of struggling artists purchased the building, and in 1977, they re-opened the bar. Due to restrictions on changing signage on historic buildings, however, the new proprietors simply painted out part of the letter B in the "Bar" sign, turning it into the word "Ear," which happened to be the name of a music magazine published upstairs.

Today

Today, the James Brown House remains largely unchanged from its past appearance, even as urban renewal has transformed the area around it. Indeed, as part of the permitting process, real-estate developers have paid for thousands of dollars in repairs and improvements to the building, including a backyard fire escape. The Ear Inn still exists as a bar and restaurant, featuring memorabilia from its past.

References

(1) http://earinn.com/

(2) http://www.thevillager.com/villager_18/earinn.html

(3) http://www.jamesbrownhouse.com/

(4) http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE1D81F38F930A25750C0A964958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=3

(5) http://www.nysun.com/new-york/gleaming-urban-glass-house-astonishes-spring/42921/

(6) http://www.tribecatrib.com/newsfeb03/ear_inn.htm

(7) http://nymag.com/nymetro/nightlife/barbuzz/11924/