{"id":359471,"date":"2026-09-29T03:21:06","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T03:21:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/359471\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T03:21:06","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T03:21:06","slug":"one-last-climb-for-a-hells-kitchen-gym-that-helped-raise-a-generation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/359471\/","title":{"rendered":"One Last Climb for a Hell\u2019s Kitchen Gym That Helped Raise a Generation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Friday evening, the narrow climbing gym at Manhattan Plaza filled with people who had learned its walls by heart. Some came to climb, others to see old friends, eat together and say goodbye. Beneath the ropes and brightly colored holds, they marked the end of a place that had been part of their lives for years \u2014 and, for some, since childhood.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" width=\"1250\" height=\"938\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/MPHC-Climbing-Gym-1436.jpg\" alt=\"MPHC Climbing Gym\" class=\"wp-image-160315\"\/>Crowds at the Manhattan Plaza Health Club climbing gym on Friday. Photo: Phil O\u2019Brien<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Manhattan Plaza Health Club climbing gym is scheduled to close Wednesday, September 30, after 34 years. It opened in 1992 in a former racquetball court, becoming, according to the club, New York City\u2019s first commercial climbing gym. Its farewell party brought back people that manager Ryan Shaefer said he hadn\u2019t seen there in 14 years.<\/p>\n<p>Success! Your account was created and you\u2019re signed in.<br \/>Please visit <a href=\"https:\/\/w42st.com\/my-account\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">My Account<\/a> to manage your account.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/w42st.com\/post\/author\/phil\/\" rel=\"author nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t<img alt=\"Phil O'Brien Portrait\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1790652066_439_cropped-Phil-OBrien-Portrait-WB-scaled-1-120x120.jpg\"  class=\"avatar avatar-120 photo\" height=\"120\" width=\"120\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\/>\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Publisher &amp; Editor Phil O\u2019Brien is an entrepreneur and journalist. As an international photojournalist, he photographed Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, Princess Diana and many others. He built a successful international sports photography agency, EMPICS, that was Getty Images\u2019 major competitor in Europe when it sold. He founded a children\u2019s charity in the UK that has helped young people through sport for over 15 years. Phil has lived in New York since 2012. He founded W42ST in 2014.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a class=\"author-link\" href=\"https:\/\/w42st.com\/post\/author\/phil\/\" rel=\"author nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\tMore by Phil O&#8217;Brien\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Friday evening, the narrow climbing gym at Manhattan Plaza filled with people who had learned its walls&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359472,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,83,131558,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-359471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-manhattanplaza","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}