☞ REMEMBER: The Plantation Club on 126th

We just recently found out that one of our favorite buildings in Harlem turns out to be one of the more notable clubs of Harlem's past. The photo from 1932 shows the block of West 126th Street between 5th Avenue and Lenox and building number 80 at the far right was formerly the Plantation Club up into the late 1930's. The Plantation Club, a couple of years before the photo was taken, hired away the famous Cab Calloway from the competing Cotton Club. The white mafia that ran the Cotton Club did not take this gesture so kindly and the following headline would run in the NY Times on the day that was to be the debut of the new club:

"GANGSTERS WRECK HARLEM NIGHT CLUB; Nine, With Crowbars, Knives and Axes Do $25,000 Damage to the Plantation. HERD EMPLOYES TO CELLAR Rip Up Dance Floor, Smash Mirrors and Destroy 200 Costumes. RAID LAID TO RACKETEERS Management Suspects Invaders, Who Escaped, Were Sent by Rivals of New Resort."

The club was basically gutted with most of the interior hacked up and thrown outside to the curb. The proprietor would soon meet a mysterious, untimely death soon after the incident.

As for the building's exterior, the original features seem to have survived through the tumultuous Jazz years. Today, the grand townhouse with its intact stained glass windows, dormers and corinthian columns, houses a church. The low wood frame house in the center of the photo was not so lucky, while the the church to the far left also still remains (but with the high gable notably missing). There is a small plaque on the front facade which states the building's construction date of 1889 so this one's over a century old. The closest subway to this location is the 2,3 or the 4,5,6 at 125th Street. Photos by Ulysses.