Bowery: Funky history meets new glamour

Walking down famed Bowery street, from which the Bowery neighborhood takes its name, the sight of trendy restaurants and swanky nightlife spots mingling with sophisticated art galleries, the world-renowned New Museum and high-rise hotel and condo units makes it hard to believe the area has a less-than-pristine past.
The Bowery went through a huge transformation, even in the past 10 years, evolving from gritty to polished at rapid speed.

The former skid row is now booming with new establishments and modern architecture that makes a mark on the city’s skyline.

Where flophouses and squats once thrived, eateries such as DBGB, owned by French chef Daniel Boulud, and The General, the casual trendy venture of “Top Chef” season three winner Hung Huynh, along with boutiques from the likes of designer Patricia Field, now take their place, attracting wealthy professionals to the area.

As the old, unwanted skin has shed, making way for a safer, cleaner neighborhood, the richer artistic and historical aspects that the Bowery is well-known for still linger.

Whether it’s the 18th and 19th century low-rise buildings that still stand, a poetry club that recalls a generation of Beat poets who wrote love letters to the Bowery or the few family-owned restaurant supply and lighting stores that refuse to leave, the area’s speedy gentrification did not discard everything.

“You feel like you’re in a part of history still,” said real estate agent Larry Carty of Corcoran. “When you step out, you have old-school places along with new institutions. People see the culture and the restaurants as amenities to their spaces.”

According to local experts, the Bowery is the city’s oldest thoroughfare. It has served as a foot trail for Native Americans, then as a home for freed slaves in 1654 and for wealthy butchers in the 19th century.

Though it was later infested with flophouses, drug dealers and gangs like the Bowery Boys, it also served as New York’s first entertainment district.

Yiddish theater had a hub on Bowery, and later punk rock took root at the now defunct CBGB club, where bands like Blondie and The Ramones played.

In 2011, the Bowery Historic District, which runs the entirety of Bowery Street from Chatham Square to Cooper Square on both sides of the neighborhood, was listed in the State Register of Historic Places. And on Feb. 20 this year, the historic district was included in the National Register of Historic Places.

However, while the recognition is worthy of praise, some longtime neighborhood residents are still concerned that the gentrification will push out the remaining remnants.

Many of the restaurant supply stores that once thrived on the Bowery packed up and went to other boroughs.

And the Bowery Alliance of Neighbors, an organization fighting to maintain the area’s old charm, say that in addition to displacement, the new high-rise hotels and condo units threaten the neighborhood’s historic character.

“We’re trying to educate both the local residents and elected officials of the significance of the Bowery’s history and the architecture,” said Mitchell Grubler, a 63-year-old resident who has lived in the Bowery for 9 ½ years and also serves as the Landmarks Committee chair of the Bowery Alliance of Neighbors.

The organization’s East Bowery Preservation Plan, which covers Canal to Stuyvesant Street, aims to preserve the remaining low-rise structures in the area and prevent further out-of-scale developments.

“What we identify as special — and worth fighting for — is the low-rise character and its historic architecture. Once it’s gone, it’s gone forever,” Grubler said.

But as the change continues, Carty is confident that the neighborhood will not lose its historical features.

“New York changes all the time, and this is part of New York changing,” he said. “But you can never really just wipe out a character of a neighborhood; it’s not possible.

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The area has been on the State Registry of Historic Places since October 2011, but the national designation is a big move, as it aims to preserve the area’s character and history.

However, the national designation is only an honorific title that recognizes the value of a place but does not enforce protections such as development restrictions.

According to the Bowery Alliance of Neighbors, some residents continue to push the East Bowery Preservation Plan, which focuses on the east side of the Bowery from Canal to Stuyvesant streets. The plan aims to stop out-of-scale development of buildings higher than eight stories.

The proponents want new development to remain in line with the low-rise historic 18th and 19th century buildings that still stand.
 

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David Mulkins has lived in the Bowery since 1983.
In addition to being the chair of the Bowery Alliance of Neighbors, he is also a history and cinema studies teacher at the High School of Art and Design. The BAN was a 2013 recipient of the Regina Kellerman Award for its grassroots community work.