BY TERESE LOEB KREUZER | Drizzle turned to rain on the afternoon of July 8 as Brian and Abby Lydon bid farewell to customers, friends and employees at Moran’s restaurant on its last day in business after 25 years at 103 Washington St.
A construction barrier for a high-rise hotel on the neighboring lot blocked Moran’s from the view of passers-by on Rector Street and diminished access to the restaurant, making it more difficult for the Lydons to stay in business. But that was only the last straw. “Business has been off for awhile,” said Abby Lydon. “There was a time when our downstairs and our upstairs dining rooms would have been packed for lunch.”
That ended on 9/11.
Amid decorations likely to be found in an Irish pub and photos of weddings and celebrations are images, newspaper clippings and mementoes of that day — a composite of the photos of the 343 firemen who died and another composite of the twin towers on which the photos of all who died are superimposed.
Another photo hangs on the wall near a stairway to the restrooms showing Washington Street in front of the restaurant as it looked after the 9/11 attack. A police car with a broken window is covered with ash and debris, as are other cars on the street. The Moran’s sign is ashy gray. It must have been hard to know where to start cleaning up, yet Brian Lydon did — staying behind when others fled, hosing down not only his own building but also others’.
“On 9/11, when we were evacuating our building [at 109 Washington St.], the waitresses at Moran’s were instructed by Brian to hand out water bottles to people [as they fled],” a neighbor, Esther Regelson, recalled.
Brian Lydon sheltered around a hundred people in his restaurant as the towers fell.
That day not only took a toll on his business but on his psyche. For years he had nightmares and flashbacks, he said. On Moran’s last day he seemed gregarious and ebullient when talking to customers, but then shadows of sadness crossed his face.
“Brian has suffered physical and emotional trauma in an effort to get the block back on its feet,” said Regelson. “The last 10 years have been a struggle to keep afloat with nothing to show for it. This is truly heartbreaking.”
Brian Lydon comes from a family of restaurateurs. His parents founded Moran’s at 19th Street and 10th Avenue. In 1982, he and his mother, Maureen Moran, saw the building at 103 Washington St. with its intriguing terracotta façade dating from 1929-1930 that had once been St. George’s Syrian Catholic Church. The first structure at 103 Washington St. was erected around 1812, but it had been much altered since then. It had served as a rooming house, a dance hall, a bordello, a bank and a shop with apartments upstairs prior to becoming a church. It was a cornerstone of an immigrant neighborhood known as “Little Syria” because of the many immigrants from the former Ottoman Empire who settled there followed by Irish, Ukrainians, Czechs and others from Eastern Europe between the end of the 19th and mid-20th centuries.
Lydon and his mother bought the historic building when a broker told them that if they didn’t, the parking garage next door would buy it and tear it down. Then they had to put in a new foundation, a new steel infrastructure and new walls. The restaurant opened in 1986.
In 2005, Sam Chang, a developer and principal of the McSam Hotel Group, known for erecting budget hotels, bought the parking garage for $17 million and subsequently demolished it, planning to erect a high-rise hotel. In the process, the foundation of the Moran’s building was damaged. Brian Lydon said, eventually, it was repaired.
The recession put Chang’s plans on hold for a few years, during which time the Moran’s restaurant building was landmarked, but this year, Chang started to build again. According to Regelson, Chang “legally blocked an already hard-to-access street, and made it all the more undesirable because of the infernal noise created by the machinery inherent in the construction.”
According to an article about Chang in The New York Times (Oct. 4, 2009), during the previous period of less than three years, “his construction company, Tritel, [had] accumulated 207 serious building violations, 47 of which [were] still unresolved. Community Board 7 in the Bronx often found him unresponsive when work on a hotel near Fordham University weakened the foundation of an adjoining home, flooding the basement.”
The New York City Department of Buildings shows partial and complete stop work orders on the 99 Washington St. site in May, June and July of this year because of McSam’s failure to file safety plans.
Chang has leased the Moran’s building from the Lydons for 30 months, with an option to extend the lease. McSam will use the building as a construction office as it erects a 43-story hotel on the neighboring lot. Though the footprint of the lot is small, McSam was able to build high by purchasing air rights from the Lydons and from three 18th-century buildings on Greenwich Street that abut the lot.
The Lydons have no plans to sell the building and will continue to keep their studio apartment there (they also have a house on Long Island), at least through the end of the year. They don’t know what they’ll do next, but Abby noted they could return. “It will depend on what it’s like down here,” she said.
On the afternoon and evening of July 8, the two bustled around the restaurant as usual — greeting and seating people, busing tables, and talking with and hugging customers. Some of them brought bouquets of flowers, and others, notes of appreciation.
“There have been so many people coming by to tell me of their memories of the place,” Abby said. “We’ve had so much love and support.”
Abby was wearing a silver necklace with two hearts dangling from it.
“Abby is a special, wonderful person,” Brian said. “She’s all about love.”
Over the door in the Moran’s vestibule, Abby had hung a sign after 9/11. It reads, “Live Well — Love Much — Laugh Often.”
“We’ll be leaving everything behind,” Abby said. “We’re not taking the fixtures.”
The doors to Moran’s are closed to the public now but the sign must still be there.
