Monday, December 5, 2011

Plan to sterilize the Bowery nearly complete: RIP Billy's tent

We wrote this back in May:

We can't help but be nervous when we see things like surveyors at work outside Billy's Antiques on Houston... What are they surveying? What godawful thing is coming/happening next to this region near the Bowery?



Now we know: After 25 years, the tent is coming down at Billy's Antiques to make way for a two-story brick building, The New York Times reported.

Proprietor Billy Leroy confirmed that his store will reopen in the new building. But, you know. Per the Times:

[W]ith the disappearance of the tent, Mr. Leroy and his employees said, another vestige of the neighborhood’s history will vanish. It is a prospect that some of them anticipate with gloom.

“It’ll be part of that final transition to a landscape of Pottery Barns and Starbucks,” said Jesse Sommer, a member of Mr. Leroy’s staff.

Should have known when the skull blew down in August.

[Photo circa 1991 by Clayton Patterson, courtesy of Billy Leroy]
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5 comments:

  1. AnonymousDecember 5, 2011 at 10:30 AM

    it continues to amaze me how property owners and the city and the like do not consult with EV Grieve about what they should or should not do.

    seems like everything would be so much better if they just cleared things ahead of time.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousDecember 5, 2011 at 11:25 AM

    Yes EV Grieve! How dare you have an opinion on ANYTHING!!!!!!

    Why can you just close your eyes and think of...well, just don't think. It'll be over soon enough.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Barney RussellDecember 6, 2011 at 1:22 AM

    Wow!!! Sunday dinners at the "Anonymous" household must be very tumultuous.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Barney RussellDecember 6, 2011 at 1:30 AM

    I will take an educated guess here and say that Clayton Patterson was photographing the police activity and inadvertantly captured a great time capsule photo of the Antique Tent ( pre-Billy). One of those happy accidents of photography.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Media glutDecember 6, 2011 at 8:51 AM

    The mural wall can be covered with tent canvas, in remembrance of the tent.

    I don't live in Manhattan any longer so I take back my comment. I have no right.

    ReplyDelete

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