Most people don’t like Times Square. You don’t like Times Square.

I’m not here to defend Times Square with some strange contrarian take. But does it still have some fascinating corners and haunts? Yup.

And that’s what we’re going to see, focusing on a block of West 44th that spans the corporate behemoths of Sixth to the luminescence at Broadway. It’s a hodgepodge block of beautiful old hotels, theaters, and office buildings; sterile walls; and a couple of touristy dives. I guess if you want to abuse the “theater” metaphor, you can call this a “backstage” block.

Get a 360 view here.

156 West 44th Street | 1925

A neo-gothic 13-story tower with apartments, a dance studio and a touristy pub designed by George Keister, a noted theater architect. Outshined by its neighbors, but not outclassed.

In the 1940s, the bar downstairs was Jimmie Dwyer’s Sawdust Trail, a rough-and-ready showcase where performers like Woody Guthrie passed through. One magazine article from that time called it a hangout for “old-time performers who come in for a reasonably priced glass of beer and talk of the old days” with the main attraction being the four white pianos in the middle of the room.

If you really want a feel for who passed through the ol’ sawdust trail in the 40s, here’s a light item from a 1942 New York Daily News:

A list posted at Jimmie Dwyer's Sawdust Trail of items found in the sawdust this week includes, among other things, a "Vote for Landon" button; six keys to the same room in one of New York's better hotels; a pair of black lace panties; a heavily thumbed copy of "The Shooting of Dan McGrew," and a book of French Line Normandie matches.

Today, the building has been home to a Tai Chi studio upstairs since 2000, with the owner telling The Spirit that “if you can do tai chi or meditation in Times Square, you can do it anywhere.”

123 West 44th Street | 1894

This is a brick fortress that started life as a long-stay hotel and went through a rotating cast of names over the decades including the Gerard and the Langwell.

It was built with “an unusual combination of Romanesque and Northern Gothic and Renaissance details found on very few other buildings in America,” and was one of the first high-rise apartment buildings in a neighborhood that was still mostly defined by brownstones, according to its city landmarks designation.

But it didn’t take long to develop a seedier reputation. Over the years, it hosted some of the tabloid-friendly lineup you’d expect just off The Deuce: an opera singer was robbed, a million-dollar porn stash was nabbed by authorities, and several suicides, according to Daytonian in Manhattan.

In 1973—still according to Daytonian—the New York Times castigated the city government for “placing hundreds of drug addicts, mental cases and other unstable people into some 20 seedy hotels in the Times Square area, creating sanctuaries for thieves, pimps, prostitutes and muggers who, the police say, prey on pedestrians in the Times Square district.”

Now in its mostly de-seeded days, it’s back as a residential-style hotel called the AKA. Out front was Café Un Deux Trois, which closed this month after almost 50 years, citing the long tail of the pandemic of fewer lunchers and higher costs. Matthew Broderick liked the French food there.

“Bow Tie Building” at 1514 Broadway | 1930s

Nothing you see here today is really cool. But, since this is some of the most valuable real estate in the world, why is it just this little building with big billboards?

So, the short version: In the late 19th century, this site held the massive Olympia Theatre built by Oscar Hammerstein.¹ He sold it in 1898 to pay debts and from there the building splintered into various flailing uses, like a movie house and a rooftop theater. It was torn down in 1935 and replaced with a smaller building that hosted an art deco nightclub, then a department store known after World War II for the huge BOND logo mounted on the roof. (Back in 2016, construction workers even found remains of the old Olympia in the basement.)

Later came Bond’s International Casino. The Clash played 17 shows there in 1981, according to Ephemeral New York. But by 2001, it was a Toys ‘R’ Us with a 60-foot indoor Ferris wheel and a large animatronic T-Rex. And now you have what’s here today: a Gap and Old Navy.

If you have any, any interest in the history of this building at all, you need to check out the mile-long post at Driving for Deco.

Anyway, what you really need to know is that the frontage on Times Square is a great place if you want to see—or maybe fight—a cartoon mascot. In 2015, a guy in a Spider-Man suit got into it with a dude after an altercation. The following year, a Batman and Spider-Man were arrested for going to town on some hecklers.

Mascots (not behaving badly)

Jimmy’s Corner | 1971

Spidey isn’t the only sparring partner in this part of town.

Jimmy’s Corner is a cozy (or cramped, depending on your mood) bar opened in 1971 by former boxer Jimmy Glenn. It’s wallpapered with boxing memorabilia and for decades has been a rare watering hole where you can still get Yuengling draft for $3.

Glenn died in 2020 during the initial Covid wave. After a hiatus, it opened the following year, and is now run by his son, Adam.

But the corner is now facing eviction by the Durst Organization, a major real estate holdings company that owns nearby skyscrapers as well comparably tiny properties like the building that holds the bar, according to the New York Times. In exchange for low rents, the bar would reportedly keep things stable.

“For a lot of our neighbors, and people who were young in the 70s and 80s and were in that neighborhood, a lot of them would say, ‘I didn’t feel safe coming home late at night if Jimmy wasn’t there,’” Adam told the Guardian.

After Glenn died, things got ugly. According to reports, Durst says it offered time and $250,000 to relocate; Adam says they told him to get out with no real offer. He sued.

Glenn told reporters he’d open in a new location if he had to. But as one office worker told the New York Times last month, this is the “only good bar in Times Square. Every other place sucks.”

Belasco Theatre | 1907

A hundred years ago David Belasco was one of the most famous and powerful people on Broadway. As the producer, playwright, and impresario, he built this theater, originally named the Stuyvesant.

He was a hard-worker, incorporating an apartment into the top of the theater, a pew from Shakespeare’s church, a lock of Napoleon’s hair, a peerless theatrical library. As the New Yorker noted in 2006:

“An elevator took the girls straight up from backstage to a watery vestibule called the Grotto (this was before Hugh Hefner was even born). They passed into an ornate study, where the Bishop of Broadway, as he was known, awaited them, in clerical dress. The pornography was hidden behind sliding panels in the wainscoting of the bedroom upstairs.”

He also had a habit of dressing like a priest. Which leads to this, I guess: “Wearing his priestly garb, he would bring the leading lady to his apartment and usher her into a confessional in the front hallway. For each sin confessed, the actress would remove an article of clothing.”

He died in 1931, but moans, upturned dressing rooms, and a ghastly figure attributed to his ghost inhabited the theater for years. Here’s a quote from the Museum of the City of New York:

“Although he’s commonly spotted as a lone figure, dressed in priestly garb watching rehearsals from the balcony, he is also said to offer praise to the actors, shaking their hands and even pinching the bottoms of several young actresses.“

The last sighting of David Belasco’s ghost, according to the sources linked above, was a 1972 showing of “Oh! Calcutta” in which 10 of the actors were naked for the run of the show. (No wainscoting required.)

The theater is still said to be haunted by The Blue Lady, the ghost of a showgirl who fell down an elevator shaft.

Some folks from the SciFi channel looked into the haunting in 2006. Spooky.

1155 Avenue of the Americas | 1984

This is one of those anonymous corporate buildings that line Sixth Avenue like big bowling pins. This one is home to law firms, insurance companies, and back office businesses that run America.

One story has it that the developers wanted to land a large law firm with 88 partners as a tenant and needed enough corner offices to keep them all happy. Hence, the chamfered corners, where a triangle-shaped slice is taken from each corner.

A recent renovation cleaned up those corners, swapping some of the heavy facade presence with floor-to-ceiling glass. I think there’s even a rooftop garden available to some tenants.

There’s more, you know: The Lambs Club is a huge imposing hotel, which I just couldn’t get a good photo of. There’s also another theater and a classy apartment building that was home to jazz musicians and featured in the Green Book. But we’re getting too long and Micky is waiting for his tip.

What’s Good: With $3 Yuenglings and creepy apartments, this stretch hasn’t quite shaken off its sordid and storied past, even if that’s disappearing.

What’s Not: There’s a lot on this block — parking garages, sterile hotel entrances, and overly touristy bars — that overwhelm the parts that otherwise have character.

Block Rating: 4.5/10