Club Avalon | Flatiron
47 W. 20th St., New York, NY 10010
The New York City location, situated on the Avenue of the Americas at West 20th Street, was ultimately the most significant and infamous of all, in New York City, was owned by Peter Gatien. It opened in November 1983. The site was a former Episcopal Church of the Holy Communion. The church was a Gothic Revival brownstone building which was built in 1844-1845 and designed by architect Richard Upjohn. In the early 1970s, when the parish merged with two others, the church was deconsecrated and sold to Odyssey House, a drug rehabilitation program. Amidst financial hardship, Odyssey House sold it to Gatien in 1982.[4]
The New York Limelight originally started as a disco and rock club. In the 1990s, it became a prominent place to hear techno, goth, and industrial music, and to meet dealers of recreational drugs. It earned the media's attention in 1996, when club kid and party promoter Michael Alig was arrested and later convicted for the killing and dismemberment of Angel Melendez, a fellow member of the Club Kids and a drug dealer who frequented the club.[5] The 2003 biopic Party Monster, starring Macaulay Culkin and Seth Green, was based on this event. The Limelight was closed by the police, and subsequently reopened several times during the 1990s. In September 2003, it reopened under the name "Avalon"; however, it closed its doors permanently in 2007.[6] Since May, 2010, the building has been in use as the Limelight Marketplace, but as of May 2014 was being converted into an outlet of the David Barton Gym chain.
