Plato's Retreat
Plato's Retreat was a sex club in New York City, owned first by Larry Levenson, and later by Fred J. Lincoln, that catered to heterosexual couples.
History
The club opened in 1977, and was popular in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The club was located in the basement of the Ansonia Hotel, an ornate 19th century building on the corner of Broadway and West 73rd Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Prior to Plato's Retreat, the building housed the Continental Baths, a famous gay bathhouse. Plato's relocated to 509 West 34th Street in 1980.
Plato's Retreat required a paid membership and members were required to follow the club's set rules. Couples were only allowed to enter the premise but drugs were not allowed (though they were frequently used despite the rule). The club housed a disco dance floor, an inhouse DJ, sauna rooms, and a swimming pool with waterfalls. No liquor was served in the club.
During its heyday, Plato's Retreat was considered the world's most famous sex club and was popular with many celebrities as well as well-to-do couples. As author Steven Gaines described in his book The Sky's the Limit: Passion and Property in Manhattan, the club attracted "an assortment of kinky types from the suburbs: dry cleaners and their wives or fat men in toupees with their heavily made-up girlfriends."
However, like other similar establishments, Plato's fell out of favor with the AIDS epidemic in the mid-1980s. The club was finally shut down on New Year's Eve, 1985 by the city of New York for violating public health ordinances.
See also
References
- ↑ Bing.com
External links
- "Swinging doors shut": New York Daily News article about the closing of Plato's Retreat
- Inside the Ansonia
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