HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES; DAMON DAHLEN
WE WERE HERE
Cotton Club
The famed New York City club is credited for launching the career of
greats like Duke Ellington, Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole
and Louis Armstrong. The club was originally located at the corner
of Lenox Avenue and W. 142nd St. in Harlem. It hosted an audience
that often included New York’s high society and performances by the
most prominent jazz musicians of the day. After the 1935 race riots in
Harlem, the area was considered unsafe for whites — who comprised
the majority of the Cotton Club’s clientele — and the club was forced
to close in February 1936. It reopened in September 1936, downtown
on 200 W. 48th St. Today, a community center called the MiniSink
Townhouse sits on the corner where the jazz club once stood.
HUFFINGTON
02.23.14