Wednesday, September 16, 2020

'A point within a city'

     
The Nat Sherman Townhouse closed permanently this afternoon at 3:45, just one act in the tragedy of the near complete dissolution of the 90-year-old institution. Only the luxury cigarette line will remain. No more cigars, and certainly no more pipe mixtures. And no more Townhouse, the venerable retailer’s fourth Manhattan location since Jimmy Walker was mayor, and Prohibition was the law of the land.

I don’t know how we’re supposed to have a New York City without Nat Sherman.

Nor have I any idea whether anyone in the Sherman family (they sold the business to Altria about four years ago) ever had any connection to the Masonic fraternity, but I personally drew something of a parallel.

On the night of my first admission into the worshipful lodge, on a steamy June evening in 1997, a symbol was revealed to me that, in my irreverence, instantly reminded me of the Nat Sherman logo.


If you care to retrieve your copy of the Fall 2014 issue of Pipes & Tobaccos magazine, you can read my feature article on the Townhouse.
     

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