Ghost Signs of NYC: Village Gate

160 Bleecker Street ©Frank Mastropolo

Art D’Lugoff opened the Village Gate in 1958 on the ground floor and basement of the former Mills House №1, a hotel for men down on their luck. The basement had been the hotel’s laundry room. By the time the Gate closed in 1994, it had become a Greenwich Village icon.

The Gate opened as a jazz and folk club and featured stars that included John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, Pete Seeger, Billie Holiday, Miles…