Paul B
Premium Member
This weekend we went into Manhattan for my Grand Sons play. It was "Finding Nemo" and he had a starring role as "Gill' the moorish Idol. He is ten.
Anyway after that our Daughter took us to Keens Chophouse on 6th Ave in Manhattan near Penn Station where I took a train for about 45 years and walked past the place every day but never noticed it.
It has been there since the mid 1800s so just before I was born.
Many famous people used to eat there including of course Washington as he ate and slept everywhere,
The thing with the place, and I assume many places at the time was when you went there, you asked for your pipe. The "Pipe Boy" would fetch your clay pipe and bring it to you. All the pipes, 88,000 of them each had a number on them attached to a specific client. The pipes were to fragile to put in a saddle bag and Toyota Land cruisers were not really available so they left the pipes there. They were about a foot long and all the same.
Pipe smoking was assumed to be good for "dissipating Homourse of the brain". An affliction some people and their fish still seem to have today.
Those pipes are still there covering every inch of the ceilings and walls right next to each other on all 3 floors.
The membership consisted of over 90,000 names but not one Woman was allowed until about 1910 or so when a Woman tried to get in and was not allowed, so she sued them and won.
This is my main squeeze of 50 years. You can see the pipes on the ceiling.
Our Daughter is kind of a celebrity there as she spent a lot of time there when she was in college and gets Royal treatment and gave us the nickel tour. They all know her and the owner came over and also treated us like he would Washington. But I didn't tell the Pipe Boy to get me a pipe.
Anyway after that our Daughter took us to Keens Chophouse on 6th Ave in Manhattan near Penn Station where I took a train for about 45 years and walked past the place every day but never noticed it.
It has been there since the mid 1800s so just before I was born.
Many famous people used to eat there including of course Washington as he ate and slept everywhere,
The thing with the place, and I assume many places at the time was when you went there, you asked for your pipe. The "Pipe Boy" would fetch your clay pipe and bring it to you. All the pipes, 88,000 of them each had a number on them attached to a specific client. The pipes were to fragile to put in a saddle bag and Toyota Land cruisers were not really available so they left the pipes there. They were about a foot long and all the same.
Pipe smoking was assumed to be good for "dissipating Homourse of the brain". An affliction some people and their fish still seem to have today.
Those pipes are still there covering every inch of the ceilings and walls right next to each other on all 3 floors.
The membership consisted of over 90,000 names but not one Woman was allowed until about 1910 or so when a Woman tried to get in and was not allowed, so she sued them and won.
This is my main squeeze of 50 years. You can see the pipes on the ceiling.
Our Daughter is kind of a celebrity there as she spent a lot of time there when she was in college and gets Royal treatment and gave us the nickel tour. They all know her and the owner came over and also treated us like he would Washington. But I didn't tell the Pipe Boy to get me a pipe.
Last edited: