nuggnotes new york’s gilded-age hashish parlors:
america’s 1st cannabis lounges
It high-society indulgence:
in the 1880s, new york’s elite visited lavish
“hashish-houses” glowing under silver filigree
lamps & prismed chandeliers. attendants packed
gunjeh while trays offered coca tea & resin sweets.
harper’s (nov 1883) describes dragon chandeliers,
silk-lined walls & a parlor “reserved for persons,
chiefly ladies.”
bohemian rebellion:
inspired by the hasheesh eater (1857) by fitz hugh
ludlow, writers & artists treated hash as a portal to
imagination, sipping coca tea in orientalist attire,
chasing visions over spirits.
imported fire:
menus listed nepaul resin & gunjeh, sometimes
mixed w/ opium, datura or henbane. the blends
were potent, dreamlike & not prohibited by federal
law. harper’s details lozenges, goza pipes & coca
service.
aesthetic escapism:
arabian-nights décor silver lanterns through
colored prisms, thick carpets, dragon fixtures
twirling smoke. mirrors & soft drapery tuned a
victorian psychedelic for reverie.
the crackdowns begin:
by the 1890s, nypd raided “turkish smoking
parlors,” charging disorderly house since hash
wasn’t outlawed. papers cast them as moral
threats. raids hit addresses near broadway, fourth
ave & w 25th st.
In press exaggerations:
tabloids bragged of “hundreds” of dens & “many
lady patrons,” but the famous “500 parlors” lacks
proof. what’s solid: a small cluster operated in
midtown before crackdowns.
cultural legacy:
these velvet rooms prefigured the modern
cannabis lounge, ritual, ambiance & shared
elevation long before dispensaries. the marihuana
tax act of 1937 later formalized federal control, but
the curated-cannabis idea began here.
the final hit:
before prohibition, the war on drugs & today’s
lounges, new york’s hashish parlors showed
cannabis could be cultured. victorians chased
nepaul resin like modern heads hunt rare strains.
full circle:
that 19th-century blend of creativity, conversation
& comfort lives on today in underground clubs like
@astorclubnyc – proof cannabis culture has
always been as much art as community.
@nuggnotes
HASH HOLES AND DONUTS NEW YORK CITY
