Following a mysterious cop raid two weeks ago and the announcement — earth-shattering for some — that Market Hotel would be closing its doors until further notice, some 60 Brooklynites gathered in the venue’s signature triangle-shaped ballroom this evening to discuss the future of the borough’s flagship DIY concert space. For those of you who have never been to Market Hotel, it was the kind of place where you would pack in along with 500 other people to see a band that in any other town might be lucky to draw 75. For those of you who do remember sweating straight through your clothes and chatting outside the bathroom with a tall boy of Coors’ banquet and an arm around a friend, you probably learned a few cool new things about Market if you attended.

The history of Market Hotel, for example, does not begin with the music venue Todd P founded with the So So Glos in February of 2008. In fact, the building was constructed in the mid-1870s, when it housed the offices of a local bank (remember all those boarded-up windows along the sides? Those were designed to keep the whole place flooded with light, pre-electricity style). Among other historical nuggets, it is also rumored that the ballroom was used as one of the location’s in the classic ’80s film Ghost (specifically, as the fleabag abode of the “bad” ghost in said film), though I think I am going to have to go back and watch it again before I can vouch for that 100%.
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