Tony Pastor's Downtown

Tony Pastor's Downtown

Tony Pastor's Downtown

Location: 130 West 3rd Street, New York, New York, USA

Opened: 1939

Closed: 1967

From the South District Historic District Report (2013):


Tony Pastor’s Downtown, 130 West 3rd Street

Another postcard of Tony Pastor's Downtown

(1939-67), had a mixed clientele of lesbians and tourists, some gay men, and female impersonators. Raided on morals charges in 1944 for permitting lesbians to "loiter" on the premises, Pastor’s survived apparently with mob backing. The State Liquor Authority, however, revoked its liquor license in 1967 because, in the homophobic language of the agency, it had "become disorderly in that it permitted homosexuals, degenerates and undesirables to be on the license premises and conduct themselves in an offensive and indecent manner."

I am now deeply mourning the death of Google news archives, as I cannot easily look up the 1944 raid. And as often is the case, the New York Times query function is acting a bit cranky too. So if--or when--I can dig up anything more on Tony Pastor's Downtown, you, my gentle Lost readers, will be the first to know.