Here’s another photo from ForgottenTour #1, June 1st, 1999, on a walk down Brooklyn’s Broadway. I caught sight of this ancient sign for the Glenwood Hotel on Broadway near Rodney Street. I imagined the space above as the flop of all flops, and thanked the god of urban explorers that I did not have to use whatever services it offered.
Here we are in 2016, and finding the photo, did a little research on the place. In 2011 Gothamist reported a rape in the place, which seems to be straight out of Luc Sante’s “Low-Life”:
The Glenwood, located at 339 Broadway between 9th Street and Keap Street, does not sound like a fine place of lodging. New York says “each floor of the two-story building is a maze of wooden stalls, with a bed and little space for anything else. Board-thin partitions and makeshift ceilings made of chicken wire and heavy quilts lend little privacy.” And one Yelp reviewer writes, “I had to change cubicles/rooms after I checked in, because my bed was infested… I could here every word of a South Park episode from a room/cubicle 100 feet away.. In the morning, I emerged from the floor’s one shower to a woman vomiting all over the floor as she banged in vain on the doors of occupied toilet stalls.”
No, I’m not ready for The Glenwood quite yet.
9/28/16