Filed Under Business
Small's Paradise
This image shows the corner of 7th Avenue and W 135th Street. On the left of the Apex School is where Small's Paradise was located. Image: Block 1940, Lot 35. Source: 1940s Tax Department photographs, New York City Municipal Archives, https://nycrecords.access.preservica.com/uncategorized/IO_99ecbc8a-d951-43e4-85e4-b1f099e28e3d/ Date: 1939-1940
"SMALL'S PARADISE, 22941/2 Seventh Avenue, one of the three night clubs for which Harlem was famous in the 1920's, still functions on Seventh Avenue; of the other two-Connie's Inn and the Cotton Club- the former went out of business and the latter is now in Times Square. Small's, under the name of the Black Venus, was described in Negro Heaven, a widely read novel by Carl Van Vechten, the first white novelist to discover "Hot Harlem." Within a few blocks of Small's are two other well-frequented night clubs with regular floor shows with Negro casts" (New York City Guide, p. 263).
Images
This image shows the corner of 7th Avenue and W 135th Street. On the left of the Apex School is where Small's Paradise was located. Image: Block 1940, Lot 35. Source: 1940s Tax Department photographs, New York City Municipal Archives, https://nycrecords.access.preservica.com/uncategorized/IO_99ecbc8a-d951-43e4-85e4-b1f099e28e3d/ Date: 1939-1940
Accessed through: The New York Public Library Digital Collection. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e2-0b27-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99 Date: 1925