NEW YORK—Walking through the narrow black door of McSorley’s Old Ale House on East Seventh Street is to cross a threshold into the earlier days of New York City. The bar has been in continuous operation since 1854, making it the city’s oldest by at least a decade. A sign over the bar advises patrons to “Be Good or Be Gone.”
The old pine floor strewn with sawdust stretches the length of the two-room drinking establishment. A pot-bellied stove warms the front room, and what was once an ice box still sits behind the bar, having been converted into a refrigerator after ice deliveries halted in the 1960s.
Photos of famous Irishmen and other famous visitors cover the walls. The list of noted drinkers that has passed through the tavern is long and impressive; Abe Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, John Lennon, and Woody Guthrie are just a few of those who have stopped by for a pint.
Plays have been written about it, John Sloan painted a picture of it; The New Yorker Magazine and Life Magazine celebrated it in the 1940s, and it was the center of a court battle, complete with protests, in 1969. McSorley’s had always refused to serve women, and two women were ejected from the bar after demanding service. The protesters won the battle and the bar has admitted women since 1970, though no facilities were installed for women for another 15 years.
Over the years the bar has passed through only three families. It is currently owned by Matthew Maher, and his daughter Teresa De la Haba, is the first female ever to work behind the bar. She worked her first shift in February 1994 and was well received by regulars—a regular at McSorley’s is someone who has been drinking the ale and eating the raw onion and cheddar cheese snacks for 30 years, according to Bill Wander, a noted McSorely’s expert.
Building records in the city were not kept until 1866. The history of McSorley’s has been carefully pieced together by author Bill Wander, who is currently writing a history of the bar.
John McSorley arrived in New York from Northern Ireland in 1827 and opened the tavern in 1854, calling it “The Old House at Home.” The address of the building was originally 15 1/2 E. Seventh St., and it belonged to John Wroughton Mitchell, a developer who owned properties from 115th Street to Baxter Street in Chinatown. The building was originally built as a one and-a-half story building. Mitchell added to the building in 1865, and expanded it to a five-story structure. In the renovations McSorely’s doubled its size by taking over the upholstery shop next door and the address was changed to 15 E. Seventh St.
Stop by McSorley’s on St. Paddy’s Day for a festive beverage, and you can have whatever you want to drink—as long as it a mug of ale, light or dark. McSorley’s serves them up two for $5, and that is the only thing they serve.
Greekworks publishers will soon publish Bill Wanderer’s book “Sawdust on the Floor.”
