McSorley’s Old Ale House

McSorley’s Old Ale House is identified by its sawdust-strewn floors and walls crowded with artifacts, newspapers, and photographs that have not been removed or rearranged since nineteen ten. Founded in eighteen fifty-four by Irish immigrant John McSorley, it is one of the oldest continuously operating taverns in New York City. The bar long maintained a strict policy against female patrons, which lasted until nineteen seventy when a legal challenge forced the doors open to women for the first time.