About: Paresis Hall

Columbia Hall, commonly known as Paresis Hall, was a brothel and gay bar in New York City in the 1890s. Located on the Bowery near Cooper Union, the Hall was managed by James T. Ellison, and took its common nickname from a general term for syphilitic insanity. The building contained both a bar and a beer garden on the ground floor, with two floors of rooms above that were rented out. One was permanently held by the Cercle Hermaphroditos, an early transgender organization, who stored clothing there due to the illegality of and public hostility to dressing in women's clothing. Paresis Hall was particularly renowned and reviled even at the time, and was a common target for both police activity and religious protests. Despite this, evidence suggests it was active until at least 1899.