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October 14, 2006 / News / Around Brooklyn

‘Landmark’ building on the block

Corner of Seventh Ave and Second St housed quirky bar

The Brooklyn Paper

That wacky house that everyone knows as “that wacky house” in Park Slope on Second Street and Seventh Avenue, is again on the market — for a wacky price.

Until last week, real-estate giant Massey Knakal was marketing the neighborhood’s ultimate fixer-upper — which once housed the legendary Landmark Pub — for $5.75 million.

At that price, the house isn’t generating much interest from buyers — but news that something might soon happen with the building certainly interested former regulars of the low-key first-floor bar.

“Landmark was full of weird toys, like kids’ xylophones and random stacks of junk,” recalled Kelly Keney, a chef at the Second Street Cafe across the street.

Regulars described the cluttered space as the kind of joint the Collyer Brothers might have opened. In this case, the hoarders were Dorothy Nash and her two daughters, Esther and Rachel.

“They would go buy cases of beer — probably from the Key Food across the street — and sell the cans for $3 each,” said Keney.

Another former Landmark regular added, “It was as if the Addams family or Queequeg from ‘Moby Dick’ opened a bar.

“You’d walk in and the old lady would give you a silly hat, a coffee can and a stick,” he said. “You’d have to keep time with whoever was performing on stage.”

But this regular’s favorite part of the bar was not what happened inside, but the looks he’d get from people on the street.

“You have to realize that this ‘bar’ was only open once or twice a week — and only for a few hours,” he said. “So you’d be sitting in there and you could watch people walk by, stop dead in their tracks, and peer in as if they simply could not comprehend what they were seeing.”

Chris Selicious, who used to live just around the corner, had similar memories.

“There were no regular hours, so it was catch-as-catch-can,” he said. “They served both kinds of Yuengling beer in bottles.

“I never saw it crowded, but that was part of the charm. You didn’t go there to head off to a corner and drink. It was more like a little party. … And then they just stopped altogether.”

Estimates vary on when exactly the Landmark Pub closed, ranging anywhere from 1996 to 1999.

But everyone agrees that following its demise, one of the daughters — the one who went to Fashion Institute of Technology — tried to open a clothing shop on the site.

Brooklyn Bridge Realty

That, too, didn’t last.

Now, the building, officially at 501 Second St., is covered in graffiti. An old “Landmark Pub” sign still hangs in a window, the white letters peeling off. In another window hangs a defunct Miller Lite neon sign.

A flier reads, “Identify yourself! There’s no place like Landmark Pub.”

Unfortunately, the Nashes weren’t eager to identify themselves to The Brooklyn Papers, despite numerous attempts to contact them.

But there are still sightings of the family — including a bizarre appearance by Esther and Rachel on the reality show, “Single in the Hamptons.”

Stephen Silverman, who lives near the Nashes’ other building, on Second Street between Sixth and Seventh avenues, said mother Nash still stops by the brownstone every couple of months — but that the building, like the one housing the Landmark Pub, is abandoned.

Silverman has many odd recollections of the Nashes.

“When I first moved here in 1997, I had these old plastic chairs in my backyard that had gotten disgusting, so I put them out in the trash,” said Silverman. “[Dorothy] ended up putting those in her front yard.”

Both of the Nash buildings are well known to city officials. The brownstone between Sixth and Seventh avenues has racked up 21 violations over the years, 20 of which are unresolved, including 2004 violations for failure to repair the disintegrating front wall.

Likewise, the 10,400-square- foot pre-war building that used to house the pub has racked up 26 violations, 21 of which are unresolved, including a 2005 violation for failure to maintain the exterior wall, a 2003 violation for loose windows that could fall and injure passers-by, and another in 2002 for overall failure to maintain the building.

That might help explain why the former pub isn’t selling.

“The building is a disaster,” said Ken Freeman, the Massey Knakal realtor who’d been marketing it for two months.

Last week, Freeman got so fed up with the owner’s unwillingness to drop the price that he dropped her instead.

“They have an inflated view of the building’s worth,” said Freeman. “I’d say it’s worth about $4.5 million.”

As the building sits on the market, some regulars wish the bar would just reopen for one last party. But not everyone is nostalgic.

“That building is a hazard,” said Brian Mitchell, who tends bar at Two Boots restaurant across the street.

“If there were ever a case for eminent domain, this is it.”

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