This is a picture of the Yorkville Casino on 86th Street from way back in the day. Now, if memory serves me right, there would have been steps leading up to this entrance.
During the mid 1950s, there was a community event here. I must have been around 17 or 17 years of age and I think it was sponsored by the Democratic Club of Yorkville. Anyway, Mayor Wagner was a main guest for the event. It was crowded.
One thing was certain, the place was loaded with parents, a lot of young kids from the neighborhood, and pictures of cold beer. It was just a matter of time before the combination blew up. It all started in bathroom, the men's room, near the urinals, when the crowd from 87th Street and the crowd from 84th Street. A fight broke out between the two crowds which eventually traveled to the street, 86th Street to be exact.
The crowd inside the Yorville Casino started to spill out onto 86th Street. It became a madhouse on 86th Street because the street was loaded with police cars from the 19th and 23rd Precinct because the mayor was at the event.
Cops poured into the Yorkville Casino to locate the mayor and the fight. Teenagers were running all over the place in an effort to get away. Cops were swinging their nightsticks as they ran into the casino and in an effort to breakup the crowd outside the Yorkville Casino.
I came out with a few friends from 87th Street and after seeing signs of the cops, we thought that it would be best to make it to 2nd Avenue and get out f the area as fast as we could.
Recalling some of the memories,
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