Formerly: The Old House at Home
New York, New York · Founded 1862 · Building: 1861–1865, with evidence of an earlier structure
McSorley's is an East Village ale house with a disputed mid-19th-century founding, sawdusted floors, a gas-lamp rack of wishbones, and a landmark 1970 fight over women’s access.
McSorley’s Old Ale House is a working East Village bar at 15 E. 7th St. whose origin is often given as 1854 but remains historically disputed. John McSorley’s earliest verified city-directory appearance is in 1862, while surviving building records point to a changing site chronology in the early 1860s. Its lasting identity rests as much on old-world rituals—the sawdust, light-or-dark ale, and long-hanging wishbones above the bar—as on a single founding year and its landmark 1970 civil-rights case.
John McSorley makes his earliest verified appearance in New York City directories, a key piece of evidence in the continuing dispute over the ale house’s claimed 1854 founding.
Source: Christopher Gray, New York Times ‘Streetscapes,’ 1995, as summarized in historic research on McSorley’s.
A federal district court rules in Seidenberg v. McSorley’s Old Ale House that the bar may not exclude women as a public accommodation.
Source: Seidenberg v. McSorley’s Old Ale House, Inc., 317 F. Supp. 593 (S.D.N.Y. 1970).
McSorley’s begins admitting women after New York City’s sex-discrimination protections take effect.
Source: Village Preservation, ‘Ladies Like Beer Too,’ 2017.
Matthew ‘Matty’ Maher buys McSorley’s and the building at 15 E. 7th St. from the Kirwan family.
Source: McSorley’s Old Ale House, ‘History’; McSorley’s Old Ale House, ‘Matty Maher, an Institution at an Institution, McSorley’s, Dies at 80.’
New York City health authorities required McSorley’s to remove, clean, and replace the long-hanging wishbones above the bar’s old gas-lamp fixture. Some fragile bones reportedly disintegrated during handling.
Source: Atlas Obscura, ‘The Wishbones of McSorley’s Old Ale House in Manhattan,’ September 29, 2014; Brooklyn Irish, ‘McSorley’s Old Ale House: Good ale, raw onions, and no ladies,’ November 11, 2016.
Matthew Maher dies; reporting identifies his daughter Ann Pullman as intending to keep McSorley’s in the family.
Source: McSorley’s Old Ale House, ‘Matty Maher, an Institution at an Institution, McSorley’s, Dies at 80.’
Every claim gets rated. A business's own website can never earn "documented."
The 1854 date is longstanding and was reportedly recorded in a 1904 handwritten statement by John McSorley, while an 1895 New York Tribune article described the place as having stood for 40 years. But city directories first list John McSorley in 1862, and later research found uncertainty about the site and present building before the early 1860s. The surviving evidence does not resolve the date conclusively.
McSorley’s is among New York City’s leading oldest-bar claimants and markets itself as the city’s oldest continuously operated saloon. Its own disputed start date, unresolved evidence of uninterrupted operation, and category differences among other old New York venues prevent a definitive citywide winner from being declared on the reviewed record.
Faith Seidenberg and Karen DeCrow challenged McSorley’s men-only policy in federal court. The court ruled on June 25, 1970 that the bar could not exclude women as a public accommodation; women were admitted beginning August 10 after New York City sex-discrimination protections took effect.
McSorley’s official history and its account of Maher’s death state that Maher, formerly the night manager, bought the bar and building from the Kirwan family in 1977.
The best-known McSorley’s story says soldiers received a turkey-and-ale farewell before leaving for World War I, hung their wishbones over the bar for luck, and removed them only if they returned; the bones remaining are therefore said to represent men who died in the war. However, accounts conflict. Some describe John McSorley as simply collecting and hanging holiday wishbones, while a reported 1954 newspaper account placed their origin at an 1865 Civil War victory dinner. The wishbones are real artifacts, but their exact provenance and identity as a memorial to specific World War I dead are not established.
McSorley’s Old Ale House was definitively founded in 1854.
McSorley’s has long used 1854, but historical evidence conflicts. A reported 1904 handwritten statement and an 1895 newspaper account support the traditional date, while city directories first list John McSorley in 1862 and building records for the site remain uncertain. No single founding year is conclusively established.
Source: McSorley’s Old Ale House official website; New York Times historical research; East Village/Lower East Side Historic District research.
The court ordered McSorley’s to admit women on August 10, 1970.
The federal court ruled in Seidenberg v. McSorley’s on June 25, 1970. McSorley’s began admitting women on August 10, after New York City’s anti-discrimination protections took effect.
Source: Seidenberg v. McSorley’s Old Ale House, Inc., 317 F. Supp. 593 (S.D.N.Y. 1970); Village Preservation, ‘Ladies Like Beer Too,’ 2017.
Every wishbone hanging above McSorley’s bar belonged to a World War I soldier who was killed in the war.
The wishbones are genuine long-hanging artifacts and are widely interpreted as a memorial to departing World War I soldiers who did not return. But the precise origin story is not conclusively documented: other accounts attribute them to John McSorley’s holiday-bone collection or to an 1865 Civil War victory dinner.
Source: Atlas Obscura, ‘The Wishbones of McSorley’s Old Ale House in Manhattan,’ September 29, 2014; Untapped New York, ‘The Top 10 Secrets of McSorley’s Old Ale House in NYC,’ August 15, 2018; Ephemeral New York, ‘The century-old wishbones hanging in McSorley’s,’ December 5, 2011.
McSorley’s has endured by making a deliberately narrow experience—light or dark ale, close quarters, old fixtures, and a famously no-nonsense atmosphere—part of its appeal. The wishbones hanging from the old gas-lamp fixture, regardless of their disputed wartime provenance, show how tangible artifacts turned a modest ale house into a place visitors treat as a living archive. Its survival is not simply a matter of an old date: later owners protected the business’s recognizable character while adapting to legal, ownership, and neighborhood changes.
John McSorley first appears in New York City directories in 1862 at the East 7th Street site associated with McSorley’s Old Ale House. The bar has long claimed an 1854 founding, but the date remains disputed because directory, tax, and building evidence does not produce a clean earlier opening record. McSorley’s later became nationally significant when a federal court ended its men-only policy in 1970.
McSorley’s is one of New York City’s strongest oldest-continuously-operating-bar claimants, but the title is unresolved. Its traditional 1854 founding date conflicts with directory and building research placing the earliest verified evidence in the early 1860s, and other historic New York venues have competing claims with their own continuity and category complications.
McSorley’s began admitting women on August 10, 1970. That followed the June 25, 1970 federal ruling in Seidenberg v. McSorley’s Old Ale House, which found that the bar could not exclude women as a public accommodation.
McSorley’s famous wishbones are commonly said to have been left by departing World War I soldiers after turkey-and-ale farewell dinners; returning soldiers were supposed to take their wishbones home, while the bones left behind came to symbolize those who did not return. The physical wishbones are real and were cleaned under city health requirements in 2011, but their exact origin is disputed. Other accounts say John McSorley collected holiday wishbones himself or trace the collection to an 1865 Civil War victory dinner.
Matthew ‘Matty’ Maher bought McSorley’s in 1977 and owned it until his death in January 2020. Reporting at the time said his daughter Ann Pullman intended to keep the business in the family, but the current legal owner and operating entity should be verified through New York business and liquor-license records.
15 E 7th St, New York, NY 10003
(212) 473-9148
McSorley’s serves its house ale as Light or Dark; confirm current hours, payment methods, and food service directly with the bar before visiting.