Bridge Cafe

The story

The Bridge Cafe bore its name for nearly a century before the Brooklyn Bridge existed. Built in 1794 as a grocery and wine and porter bottler at 279 Water Street, the wooden building cycled through groceries, porterhouses, and liquor establishments — and, between 1847 and 1860, a brothel run by Henry Williams, whose prostitutes appeared in the 1855 city census. Maurice Hyland added a third story in 1888. Until its 2012 closure, it held the title of New York City's oldest continuous business establishment, one of the last wooden-framed buildings still standing in lower Manhattan.