☞ REMEMBER: Barron Wilkins Club on 134th

Barron Wilkins was the pioneer of Harlem Renaissance's most famous club but somehow the African American businessman's establishment has been forgotten.  Mr. Wilkins was a major supporter of the musicians who lived in the Tenderloin area of Manhattan which was then considered the ethnic neighborhood.  African Americans started moving from this part of the city, which is Hell's Kitchen today, and heading up to Harlem slowly by 1910 and Barron Wilkins would purchase an establishment called the Astoria Cafe at the south east corner of 134th and 7th Avenue.  By 1915, this would then become the Exclusive Club but many apparently just called it Barron Wilkins' Club or Cafe.

This was the first Harlem establishment where limousines full of wealthy white downtowners would arrived to listen to the emerging black music scene uptown and all guests were required to dress in strictly formal evening wear.   Harlem was just starting to becoming the underground place to entertain the wealthy which would then also attract the young and beautiful new notables of that generation.  One of the  regularly invited guests of the time was an unknown chorus girl named Lucille LuSueur who would later become the actress Joan Crawford.

Wilkins' Club would also invent the segregation system of Harlem's lounges by only allowing only whites to be patrons.  There apparently were exception if one was black and extremely fair or abundantly famous.  The other big three clubs which included Small's Paradise, the Cotton Club and Connie's Inn would open around 1922 or 1923 which was at least a half decade later than Barron Wilkin's establishment.

Number 198 West 134th Street still stands today but the bodega owners at the bottom floor probably do not know much about its famous past. The orginal Cotton Club was torn down by the mid 1950s, Connie's Inn was demolished last year and now Small's Paradise houses a IHOP.  Hopefully in the new era of growth in Harlem, some much needed historic preservation will come about and this important building will be recognized one day.  Interestingly enough, one of Harlem's newest, underground music venues called Shrine is only a couple of doors away and has brought back the diverse crowds to this part of town: LINK