Subway Tavern, ca. 1905.

The Subway Tavern was not any regular bar. Situated in a dense neighborhood, near a station of the new subway system, the tavern was created to be a moral one!? Conceived by Bishop Henry Codman Potter of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, it was meant to be a bar where "proper and gentlemanly" drinking wold occur. Staff here was empowered to monitor and guide patrons towards responsible drinking habits. Located in a former saloon (with unrestricted drinking one assumes), the Subway Tavern had a front room open to both sexes and a back room that was for men only. Patrons could have one, maybe two drinks before being cut off.

Though noted in local and national news for its peculiarity, the experiment was largely a failure. The Episcopalian Church was not thrilled with their name associated with bar only a few blocks from the immorality of the Bowery. And within a year the bar was empty. (Presumably those who might have had two drinks here before moving on to a less virtuous establishment gave up the pretense and just started drinking elsewhere.) The Subway Tavern closed in 1905 and the location reopened soon after as an ‘out and out saloon,' likely making both the religious men (except for Bishop Potter) and the neighborhood imbibers much happier.