Saturday, March 13, 2010

The long history of 104-106 Bowery



Thanks to the EV Grieve reader who passed along this link to a great story in the Times by Dan Barry that I missed. A few years back 106 Bowery was the flophouse Stevenson Hotel... and Barry traces the building's evolution through the years... An excerpt:

The building at 104-106 Bowery, between Grand and Hester Streets, has been renovated, reconfigured and all but turned upside down over the generations, always to meet the pecuniary aspirations of the owner of the moment. Planted like a mature oak along an old Indian footpath that became the Bowery, it stands in testament to the essential Gotham truth that change is the only constant.

Its footprint dates at least to the early 1850s, when the Bowery was a strutting commercial strip of butchers, clothiers and amusements, with territorial gangs that never tired of thumping one another. Back then the building included the hosiery shop, which promised “all goods shown cheerfully” — although an argument one night between two store clerks, Wiley and Pettigrew, ended only after Wiley “drew a dark knife and stabbed his antagonist sixteen times,” as The New York Times reported with italicized outrage.


Read the whole article here.

7 comments:

NYCDreamin said...

Fantastic story. The slideshow that goes with it is awesome too. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

There is still a King Glassware (seen in the 1940 pic) on this block. It is run by a surly fellow a few doors down at 112 Bowery. Wonder if it's the same business.

BOWERY REVIEW said...

Some how we need a moratorium on the developers. Its physical distruction really should be stopped. Or these kind of stories will be all thats left for the future. Good story but sad. Times could have also placed in it it Obituary section.

BOWERY REVIEW said...

Seriously! How dumb will this look in 100 years and what will be it's history?
http://architourist.pbworks.com/f/CooperSquare%20Hotel1.jpg

EV Grieve said...

You're right, Curt... a lot of people think the Cooper Square Hotel will one day become an NYU dorm...

glamma said...

hey grieve, did you notice the times ripped off your story last weekend?

EV Grieve said...

What story, Glamma?