Back to Old St. Mark’s & the Revenge of the Third Avenue Dinosaur

To quote ol’ Morrissey, these things take time, I guess.

Way back in February of 2014, I wrote a post about remembering a dinosaur sculpture atop the old Continental Divide bar (now simply Continental), just a few steps to the north of St. Mark’s Place. While I seem to remember it being a freestanding sculpture, I had no photographic evidence of same to support my recollection. In turn, I posed the question to the swelling ranks of Flaming Pablum Nation! As if on cue, a chorus of crickets began chirping.

Then, a few months later, I stumbled across a shot by my friend Susan Fensten’s father from the 80’s that featured the dinosaur. It was grainy and faint, but there it was (also as part of their signage, and not a freestanding sculpture as I’d initially asserted).

Just this week, though, a reader named Barbara Briggs wrote in about it. Here’s what she had to say….

I worked at the 'Divide' from '87 until '94, lots of great shows and stories. In '89 (?) we did a marathon 24 hour recording session, 'Live from the Continental Divide' with some of our regular bands, that also has photographic evidence of dinosaurs, you can google it and see the cover.

Here's that cover (and back cover)....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The one inside the bar (above) is a picture of Paul O'hallran who worked there for years. The picture on the wall behind him (hard to see) is a painting done by Moki Cherry, Don Cherry's ex-wife and the mother of Eagle-Eye and Neneh, she was a good friend of the owner, Alan Roy. (btw, the painting is of dinosaurs)

The one outside (below) is Bob Cerny who managed the CD for many years then went on to manage The Spiral on Houston St., which was opened by the owners of the Divide when they thought they were going to lose their lease.

Lots of great stories, great bands/performers over the years including, Allen Ginsberg and Abby Hoffman.

Meanwhile, just this morning, a gentleman named Tom Langston posted this shot from 1984 to the Manhattan Before 1990 group.

If at first you don’t recognize it, this is essentially that same strip. The bar in this picture — then called, somewhat worryingly, Jack the Ribber — later became Continental Divide and, later, simply Continental. The stores on the left hand side (the art supply place and the hardware store) were razed in the early 90’s, and Cooper Union erected its first dormitory on that spot. Here's that same strip a couple of months back, from a slightly northerly angle...

I once spent a few nights in that dorm, penning a freelance article for Cooper Union's alumni magazine about life in their very first dorm, but that's a post for another day.

It should also be noted that this is the same corner where that shot of Mick Jones of the Clash was snapped.

Thanks to Barbara and Tom for the photographs!!