DEMOLITION: UPDATE AT LENOX LOUNGE 2017

Harlem Bespoke:  The final demolition of what remains of Lenox Lounge started last week and it now looks like most of the work will be completed in the next 24 hours. We walked by the historic site located on Lenox by 124th Street yesterday and saw that the demo crew pretty much has deconstructed everything but the front wall which will probably be all gone today.   As many know by now, a new commercial building will be rising on the spot in the near future but the destruction of the legacy might be one of the most egregious historic loss that Harlem has had in this century.

Lenox Lounge was the only fully intact jazz club from the Harlem Renaissance period that remained at the same spot for over 70 years.  The likes of Billy Holiday and Langston Hughes would have visited the historic boîte which also had a rare intact interior.  Efforts to landmark the facade and everything within probably was never on the table as far as we know and this probably has something to do with a laisser-faire attitude with the business owners in the mix.

Lenox Lounge was a greater sum to the fabric of history than the amount of currency that would be made in the future but somehow all involved just let capitalism rule at the end.    More on what will replace LL can be found in our past post: LINK

HarlemBespoke.com 2017