Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images
North 6th is really and truly cooked. Variety reports the Music Hall of Williamsburg will be closing at the end of 2026 after its landlords declined to renew its lease. The venue at 66 North 6th Street was one of the last vestiges of the early aughts wave of development of the block, which is now home to Hermès and Diptyque. Co-partners at Bowery Presents, the venue’s promoter, announced the news in a note to staff: ”Let’s make our final year on North 6th Street one to remember.”
The Music Hall of Williamsburg first opened in 2007, taking over what was then Northsix, a pioneering music venue that had opened in 2001. (The place was decidedly lo-fi and had the feeling of “a school auditorium,” per The Village Voice. The owner, Jeff Steinhauser, apparently hammered the stage together himself.) The move was part of an expansion into Brooklyn by Bowery Presents, which also owns the Bowery Ballroom and Mercury Lounge. After buying the venue, the company spent five months renovating it into a 550-seat space with a more polished feel. People mourned it, along with the condos rising on the East River, as a sign of gentrification — which almost feels quaint given what’s happened to the block in the decades since.
But the venue did continue to provide a place to play for up-and-coming bands, kids from the nearby outpost of the School of Rock, and New York City royalty for close to two decades. (Patti Smith was its first-ever act.) It was the old-new Williamsburg. Now it’s sandwiched between a Patagonia and a Brooklinen.
The building is owned by investment firm Asana Partners, which bought 66 and 70 North 6th Street in 2019 for almost $30 million. It’s unclear what the space will become next or if and where the Music Hall of Williamsburg may live on elsewhere. But place your bets for 66th North 6th. Maybe a second Rivian dealership?