Seidenberg v. McSorley's: How New York's Oldest Saloon Finally Served Women

McSorley’s Old Ale House, opened by Irish immigrant John McSorley in 1854 and New York’s oldest Irish saloon, refused to serve women for 116 years. After two National Organization for Women members were denied service in 1969, the federal case Seidenberg v. McSorley’s Old Ale House (1970) forced it open, Barbara Shaum became its first female patron.

The case that forced the door

For more than a century, the alehouse on East 7th Street operated as a men-only room. That exclusion was not a private quirk by 1969, it became a federal question after two National Organization for Women members were denied service. The lawsuit, Seidenberg v. McSorley’s Old Ale House, reached court in 1970. The result was not a voluntary modernization. A federal case forced the oldest Irish saloon in New York to open its doors to women. Barbara Shaum became its first female patron that same year. The legal fight was narrow, but its effect was immediate: the men-only policy that had defined the saloon for generations could no longer stand.

What the ruling changed

The decision mattered beyond one bar stool. McSorley’s had been serving men since 1854, through changes in the city around it. By 1970, the saloon’s rule had become a legal anachronism: a public place that claimed the right to serve only half the city. The Seidenberg case turned that claim into a defeat. Women could enter, order, and stay. For a place that had built its identity on continuity, the change was abrupt, but it also aligned the old saloon with the city it had outlasted. The story is now part of the downtown immigrant history that runs through ChinatownChinatownManhattan's dense, working Chinese neighborhood of markets, dumpling counters and a century and a half of history. and Little Italy, where Irish, Italian, and Chinese New York overlap within a few blocks. That makes McSorley’s a useful stop for understanding how immigration, law, and neighborhood change collided in downtown Manhattan.

Visiting McSorley’s today

McSorley’s Old Ale House still sits on East 7th Street, and the door that was once closed to women is now the entrance to a working saloon. Check the official McSorley’s Old Ale House page for current opening hours, since they can vary by day and season. If the goal is to feel the 1854 room rather than just take a photo, stand at the bar and look back toward the front windows, that angle shows the long, narrow space and the age of the place. Weekday opening time is usually calmer than late weekend afternoons, when the small rooms fill fast. If the bar is full, wait for a spot rather than treating the room as a quick photo stop, the point is the room, not the turnaround. Pair the visit with a walk through Chinatown and Little Italy or continue to Wall Street for the city’s older civic layers. A bookable option is a small-group East VillageEast VillageThe neighborhood east of the Bowery that birthed punk at CBGB and still runs on venues, dive bars and immigrant kitchens. history walk that passes McSorley’s and explains the neighborhood’s Irish, Italian, and Chinese immigrant layers, from $35 (estimated). Check traveler reviews on the activity page before choosing a date.

More on the place itself: chinatown little italy.