McGurk’s Suicide Hall

McGurk’s Suicide Hall. 295 Bowery. On this site once stood a five-story tenement building which between 1895 and 1902 housed the notorious McGurk’s Suicide Hall. Advertised as “The roughest joint in town,” McGurk’s attracted the lowest of low-brow clientele – from criminals and prostitutes to gamblers and rowdy sailors – all kept in line by its ferocious staff of bouncers and waiters. A disturbing trend surfaced in the saloon’s backroom in 1897, after a couple of down-and-out prostitutes attempted suicide by mixing carbolic acid and a shot of whiskey. Owner John McGurk capitalized on the macabre tradition by boldly renaming it Suicide Hall., Soon, visitors lined up to visit the saloon, in hopes of glimpsing the gruesome acts in person. In all, at least ten women committed suicide here., Though shut down in 1902, McGurk’s was for decades referenced in novels and films such as Mae West’s raunchy Broadway homage, She Done Him Wrong (1933). The 1863 building later became a lodging house and then artists lofts. In the mid-2000s, Feminist writer Kate Millett (Sexual Politics), who resided here, led a valiant effort to landmark it and establish a museum memorial to the prostitutes who died there., -Eric Ferrara, author of The Bowery and founder of Lower East Side History Project (leshp.org)