High-Society Indulgence
In the 1880s, New York’s elite frequented ornate “hashish-houses” glowing under silver filigree lamps and prismed chandeliers. Attendants prepared gunjeh—pressed cannabis resin—while trays offered coca tea and resin-based confections. A Harper’s Magazine report from November 1883 described dragon-shaped fixtures, silk-lined walls, and a “parlor reserved for persons, chiefly ladies.” These spaces embodied Victorian luxury infused with exotic fantasy.
Bohemian Rebellion
Writers and artists, inspired by Fitz Hugh Ludlow’s The Hasheesh Eater (1857), embraced hashish as a portal to imagination. They gathered in these parlors wearing Orientalist dress, sipping coca tea, and chasing visions that blurred art, spirituality, and indulgence. The gatherings symbolized defiance against social restraint—bohemian escapism fueled by imported cannabis resin.
Imported Fire
Menus in these parlors listed “Nepaul resin” and “gunjeh,” potent cannabis imports sometimes blended with opium, datura, or henbane. These mixtures, legal under U.S. law at the time, produced dreamlike states prized by artists and intellectuals. Harper’s accounts detail lozenges, goza pipes, and traditional coca service, reflecting a cosmopolitan ritual of altered consciousness before prohibition existed.
Aesthetic Escapism
The décor was a sensory experience. Rooms shimmered with Arabian-Nights ornamentation—silver lanterns refracting colored light, thick carpets, mirrored walls, and dragon-shaped chandeliers. Each element invited patrons into a curated dreamscape. These Victorian environments functioned as proto-psychedelic lounges long before the modern concept of a “vibe” was born.
The Crackdowns Begin
By the 1890s, police raids began targeting “Turkish smoking parlors.” Since cannabis was not yet outlawed, authorities charged owners under vague disorderly house statutes. Newspapers framed the establishments as moral threats and dens of vice. Most were clustered near Broadway, Fourth Avenue, and West 25th Street—an area once dense with literary and theatrical life.
Press Exaggerations
Sensational tabloid stories claimed there were “hundreds” of such dens and “many lady patrons,” but archival records suggest otherwise. The oft-cited “500 hashish parlors” figure remains unsupported. Evidence points instead to a handful of active establishments, their notoriety amplified by moral panic and the novelty of exotic drugs in upper-class leisure.
Cultural Legacy
These 19th-century velvet rooms prefigured today’s cannabis lounges. They emphasized ritual, ambiance, and shared elevation long before legalization. While the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 eventually placed cannabis under federal control, the curated consumption model—the idea that cannabis could be cultural, social, and sophisticated—was born in these Gilded Age parlors.
The Final Hit
Before prohibition, before the War on Drugs, New York’s hashish houses demonstrated that cannabis could be cultured. Patrons sought Nepalese resin much like modern connoisseurs pursue exotic strains—proof that appreciation for quality and ritual predates the modern industry.
Full Circle
The essence of those 19th-century spaces—creativity, conversation, and comfort—lives on today in private lounges and underground collectives such as the Astor Club. Across a century and a half, the tradition of cannabis as both art and community endures, from silk-draped parlors to candlelit hash circles.
YOUTUBE VIDEO
— Nugg Notes
SOURCES:
• Kane, H. H. “A Hashish-House in New York: The Curious Adventures of an Individual Who Indulged in a Few Pipefuls of the Narcotic Hemp.” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, vol. 67, Nov. 1883, pp. 944–49. Harper’s Magazine, https://harpers.org/archive/1883/11/a-hashish-house-in-new-york-the-curious-adventures-of-an-individual-who-indulged-in-a-few-pipefuls-of-the-narcotic-hemp/.
• Ludlow, Fitz Hugh. The Hasheesh Eater. Harper & Brothers, 1857. Project Gutenberg, 2004, https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24277.
• Jacobs, Linda K. “Arabs Perform in Nineteenth-Century America.” Mashriq & Mahjar, vol. 2, no. 1, 2014, https://lebanesestudies.ojs.chass.ncsu.edu/index.php/mashriq/article/view/41/527.
• Abel, Ernest L. Marihuana: The First Twelve Thousand Years. Springer, 1980. https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/978-1-4899-2189-5.pdf.
• “Hasheesh Hell on Fifth Avenue.” Hash Marihuana & Hemp Museum, 1876, https://hashmuseum.com/en/collection/history-of-smoking/hasheesh-hell-on-fifth-avenue/.
• Musto, David F. “The 1937 Marihuana Tax Act.” Archives of General Psychiatry, vol. 26, Feb. 1972, pp. 101–08. VoteHemp (reprint PDF), https://www.votehemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Musto-on-the-MTA.pdf.
0 comments