Webster Hall

The story

Webster Hall has been recognized as the first modern nightclub — a distinction that anchors everything else about it. Built in 1886 as a plain "hall for hire" on East 11th Street, it spent over a century shapeshifting through social events of every kind. The Ballinger brothers reopened it in 1992 with a capacity of 1,400. In 2008, the Landmarks Preservation Commission made it an official New York City landmark. After a nearly two-year renovation, it reopened in 2019 — still the original address, still the room where the modern nightclub was invented.