Live in a Piece of Prohibition History in Cairo, $210,000

  |  September 8, 2015
2776 route 23b cairo ny

This c.1824 renovated Colonial in the sleepy Greene County town of Cairo might be home to the most intriguing piece of local history we’ve stumbled across in quite some time. According to lore (and the listing), this house was once the Hollywood Inn, where famed gangster/bootlegger/Acra resident Legs Diamond used to hang out with his cadre of ne’er-do-wells. After multiple attempts made on Diamond’s life, he finally succumbed up in Troy, but before that, he was shot 3 times at a Cairo roadhouse and made a full recovery. While it was tough to find much about the Hollywood Inn, we finally came upon a mention in a Schenectady Gazette article from 1931, which says that Diamond’s friends “ransacked” the Hollywood Inn in order to “destroy possible paper evidence which might lead to further arrests in the State investigation into the affairs of Diamond.” Now THAT’S a story. These days, the Colonial doesn’t even slightly resemble a bootlegger’s hangout. Instead, it’s a large, bright home with 4 beds/2 baths, living room wood stove, parquet floors in the dining room, a screened-in porch, and a 1.5 acre woodsy yard. We can’t help but wonder what old Legs would think of his former hangout now.

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2776 Route 23B, Cairo (Coldwell Banker)

About Kandy Harris

Kandy is a writer and musician/music teacher living in Saugerties, NY.

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