In September 2026, I was stumbling through Park Slope, on my way to a screening of a documentary about Hank’s Saloon, the longtime dive bar at Atlantic and 3rd Avenues, at another dive bar, Young Ethel’s (though they may dispute the point) when the camera was attracted to a pair of buildings at #489-491 6th Avenue between 11th and 12th Streets called the Milton Apartments. According to Ephemeral New York via the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, they are “two four story brick dwellings, 20 x 60, for six families and store in each. George O. Van Orden, owner; cost $32,000.”
What really drew the camera’s attention, though, was this unusual identification tablet above the doors, showing the apartments’ name and date of construction. Unless it’s been touched up over the last 136+ years, it’s as sharp and legible as the day it was carved.
Hank’s Saloon, 3rd Avenue and Atlantic, used to be one of Brooklyn’s only dive country and western bars. Well, maybe the only one. By 2019, when I passed by, its original location was biding its time as a billboard for Marjam, the construction company. The original Hank’s moved to Adams and Fulton Streets in 2017, but that site, too, has closed. We await Hank’s next reincarnation, if any.
Since I never troubled Hank’s (regretfully) I’ll let Wendy Mitchell describe it, from the first edition of New York City’s Best Dive Bars (Ig Publishing, 2003):
Check out the ForgottenBook (HarperCollins, 2006), as well as Forgotten Queens (Arcadia, 2013). I also have a chapter in the anthology “New York Calling: From Blackout to Bloomberg” (Reaktion, 2007). As always, “comment…as you see fit.” I earn a small payment when you click on any ad on the site, which helps in site upkeep and also aids Greater Astoria Historical Society.
11/10/26