Bowery’s Past: From Tidy Homes to Rowdy Nights

A Glimpse of the 1820s Residential Street Hidden Beneath Today’s Hustle

New York’s bustling Bowery, now synonymous with vibrant nightlife and commercial enterprise, once presented a far more genteel facade. Before the dance halls, elevated trains, and a transition to luxury accommodations, this historic street was lined with modest, single-family residences, a stark contrast to its modern image.

A Street Transformed

Originally a Dutch carriage road known as “Bowry Road,” the thoroughfare’s early history involved cattle drovers. However, by the early 19th century, as New York City experienced a population surge, the Bowery, officially renamed in 1813, was eyed for residential development.

Wealthy residents sought to eliminate the noise and unsightliness of the slaughterhouses. In the 1820s, they purchased properties from slaughterhouse owner Henry Astor, paving the way for a more respectable streetscape.

As slaughterhouses moved north, large estates were subdivided. The opening of the Bowery Theater in 1826, designed with an imposing Roman temple-like facade, signaled the street’s ambition to attract an elite clientele, marking the beginning of its stint as a fashionable address.

Among the few remaining examples of this genteel era is the house at 306 Bowery. Built around 1820, this three-and-a-half-story brick structure exemplifies the Federal-style row houses that characterized the neighborhood in the 1830s, according to the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Investment Property and Early Residents

Number 306 was constructed not for a family but as an investment by George Lorillard, son of snuff manufacturer Pierre Lorillard. Lorillard, who had taken over his father’s tobacco business, invested in real estate, also building adjacent properties at 308 and 310 Bowery.

The house featured characteristics desired by merchants of the time: three stories, Flemish bond brickwork, sandstone lintels, and a half-story with dormer windows. The earliest known resident was Ann Fisher, who lived there in the 1820s. Her funeral notice in 1838 referred to the home as “her late residence.”

The Shift Away from Residence

In 1841, Lorillard sold 306 Bowery. This move may have been prescient, anticipating the street’s decline as proximity to the Five Points slum district potentially impacted property values. The introduction of streetcars in 1832 and increasingly coarse crowds at the Bowery Theater further shifted the street’s character.

The mid-19th century saw commerce and entertainment venues like vaudeville theaters and saloons replace residences. The working class and immigrant populations, many of them German immigrants, began to occupy the carved-up houses and new tenements. The roar of the Third Avenue Elevated train in 1878 contributed to the changing soundscape.

While the ground floor of 306 Bowery was altered for a storefront in 1876, the building largely retained its original form, with a new fire escape added by 1940. It remained a single-family home with a ground-floor store until 1966, when it was converted into artists’ studios.

More recently, the building housed a Patricia Field boutique, which closed in 2015. Its neighbors, 308 and 310 Bowery, have been transformed into upscale establishments.

This 205-year-old structure serves as a potent reminder of the Bowery’s layered history. By picturing a stoop instead of a storefront, one can imagine the street as it was in 1820, at the dawn of its brief period as a respectable middle-class enclave. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, New York City’s population has grown to over 8 million people since the Bowery’s residential heyday, underscoring the dramatic urban transformation over centuries.