From The Strand Hotel To the Liberty Inn

Service Description

If you’ve spent any time exploring the Meatpacking District on the far westside of lower Manhattan, you may have stumbled across a strange, triangular-shaped, three story building. It seems out of place with its luxurious surroundings: Little Island across the Westside Highway, Chelsea Market and the Highline catercorner to the northeast, the Whitney Museum just a few blocks south on Gansevoort Street. The building is shuttered, although there is still a purple awning proclaiming “the Liberty Inn.” You may have even heard that it was once a “hotsheet hotel,” the sort of place that rented rooms by the hour and sold condoms in the vending machines. On this webinar, you will learn the sordid century-long history of this building, and how its many incarnations reflect the changing character of the neighborhood: • The sailor’s residence called the Strand, when New York City was one of the busiest seaports in the world. • The hotsheet hotel called the Hide-A-Way, when the seaport industry had collapsed, and New York City was on the verge of bankruptcy. • The gay leather bar called the Anvil, when the neighborhood was a post-industrial wasteland/semi-autonomous sexual playground. • The romantic rendezvous called the Liberty Inn, when the neighborhood was gentrifying. • The Korean luxury sedan dealership called Genesis House, when “autoeroticism” had supplanted sex as the driving force in the neighborhood. It’s a lusty tale of seamen and semen, cruise ships and cruising, meatpacking and packing meat. All aboard! Thar she blows!