John Sloan, “The Hell Hole,” 1917


Etching and aquatint.
"... Built in the 19th century, the Golden Swan stood until 1928, when the structure was demolished as part of the building of the Sixth Avenue Subway. The longtime proprietor, Thomas Wallace, is widely accepted to be O’Neill’s inspiration for the proprietor of the bar in 'The Iceman Cometh,' the most famous off-Broadway revival of which was itself produced in Greenwich Village. ... Since then the bar has become somewhat of a neighborhood legend, occupying space not on the corner of West 4th and 6th, but in the pages of New York Times local and human interest columns. Even in absentia, the institution evokes the rough and romanticized history of Village Bohemia, with its dark dives where geniuses tortured themselves into producing masterworks. ..."
Golden Swan Garden, the Hell Hole, and “The Iceman Cometh”
Seeing the City: Sloan's New York
Slumming and Black-and-tan Saloons: Racial Intermingling and the Challenging of Color Lines
Art Collection

Notorious Village dive bar the Golden Swan

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