An engraving of three boys on a street corner entitled “Specimen Bowery Boys.” The Bowery Boys were a nativist gang that operated in lower Manhattan in the early and mid 19th century.
The Third Avenue Elevated blankets a stretch of the Bowery. The rail system was completed in 1878.
The Bowery, circa 1884. By 1915, the Third Avenue El would add two more tracks down the middle of the street, completely blocking most sunlight from reaching below.
Steve Brodie’s Bar and Tavern on Bowery between Hester and Grand Streets, circa 1887.
New York’s “Short Tail Gang,” one of the infamous Five Point gangs, photographed beneath a pier on the Lower East Side, 1887.
“Bandit’s Roost,” a labyrinth of alleyways and shanty homes that Jacob Riis called “the vilest and worst to be found anywhere,” 1888.
A dive bar on Broome Street, circa 1888-1889.
Workers in a sweatshop in a tenement on Ludlow Street, circa 1889.
A man walks down the streets of Five Points, New York’s most dangerous slum, 1890.
A man prepares to celebrate the Sabbath on Ludlow Street, circa 1890.
An Italian immigrant smokes a pipe beneath the Rivington Street Dump, circa 1890.
Women at the Elizabeth Street police station, circa 1893.
Empty lots on Delancey Street, looking east towards the Williamsburg Bridge from between Bowery and Chrystie Street, circa 1895.
The bustle of the Bowery, circa 1900.
Men wait for free coffee at a mission in the Bowery, circa 1908.
A Bowery five cent restaurant, circa 1910.
Unemployed men wait in a line for jobs on Water Street in the Bowery, circa 1910.
A man selling food on New York’s Lower East Side, 1917.
The body of New York gangster Louis Riggiona, found dead in the gutter of Mulberry Street, circa 1930-1931.
Homeless men apply for housing at the Bowery YMCA during the Great Depression, 1930.
Unhoused men march in the Bowery wearing winter underwear and barrels to petition for clothes, or at least $1.00 a week so they can buy some, circa 1934.
Volunteers of America pass out Thanksgiving dinner to the unhoused at the Bowery Tabernacle, circa 1935.
Unemployed men smoke cigarettes at a shantytown in lower Manhattan, 1935.
Unemployed men crowd outside the Bowery Mission, circa 1935.
McSorley’s Old Ale House opened its doors in 1854. Pictured here in 1937, it’s one of the city’s oldest pubs today.
A man sleeps on the streets of the Bowery in the 1940s.
Mildred Hull, New York City’s first female tattoo artist, at her tattoo parlour “Tattoo Emporium” in the Bowery, circa 1940.
A would-be robber named Andrew Izzo lies dead after an undercover police officer walked in on him and three others trying to rob the Bowery Pool Room on Broome Street, 1942.
Sammy’s Bowery Follies, described as “the city’s most un-exclusive night club,” circa 1943.
Men asleep on a sidewalk in the Bowery, circa 1950s.
Two men drinking under the Third Avenue El in 1955, shortly before the city deconstructed the tracks.
The Bowery neighborhood in 1961.
A pair of men eat beneath signs warning of wood-alcohol poisoning in 1963. Scores of homeless men died of wood alcohol poisoning in the 1960s in the Bowery.
A man rests in front of a symbolic sign in New York’s Bowery, 1966.
A homeless man sits in front of a flop house on the Bowery, 1967.
Two women hang out in the East Village, 1967.
Young people play in the rain in Tompkins Square Park a few blocks away from the Bowery, 1967.
Members of an East Village gang are booked and questioned by police after the fatal burning of a rival gang member, 1969.
Homeless men sleep on the streets of the Bowery, circa 1970s.
Residents of the Lower East Side chat outside an apartment building, circa 1970s.
Two sex workers in the Bowery in the 1970s. In 1976 alone, New York City saw over 2,400 arrests for prostitution.
Police raid the Hells Angels headquarters after reports that the motorcycle gang had raped and kidnapped a teenage girl, 1978.
Two young men in leather jackets stand outside CBGB, the cultural center of New York’s punk scene, on Valentine’s Day 1983.
A Vietnam War veteran holds a sign in the Bowery, 1984.
The Bowery: Where New York’s Past Refuses to Be Forgotten
New York City has always been a place of transformation — a city that rebuilds, reinvents, and repackages itself every generation. But few neighborhoods have worn as many faces as the Bowery. From Native American footpath to colonial farmland, from a seedy underworld to punk rock paradise, and now to a sleek nightlife hub — the Bowery tells the story of a city through extremes. And the images? They speak louder than any words.
Let’s dive deep into the soul of this historic street — one lined with history, heartbreak, rebellion, and rebirth. Here’s how the Bowery went from gangs to gentrification — and what it lost along the way.
A Native Path Becomes New York’s Early Lifeline
Long before the Bowery was drenched in neon or rocked by punk guitars, it was known as Wickquasgeck, a Native American trail meaning “path to the wading place.” It stretched northward through what would become Manhattan, connecting local tribes with water crossings and trade routes.
In the 17th century, Dutch settlers renamed the trail “bouwerie,” meaning farm, when it led to Governor Peter Stuyvesant’s estate. That’s how the Bowery got its name — and its first transformation.
Video: The Real Five Points, The Neighborhood That Inspired ‘Gangs of New York’
The Elegant Bowery That Didn’t Last
By the late 1700s, the Bowery was the place to be. It was an elegant, thriving boulevard home to theaters, shops, and high society. The elite of early New York strolled its sidewalks in carriages, attended the city’s finest stage performances, and dined in its restaurants.
But like all good things in NYC, the glamor didn’t last. The Civil War hit, and things changed — fast.
The Bowery’s Collapse: A Shadow Cast by the El
In 1875, the construction of the Third Avenue Elevated Railway, affectionately known as the El, loomed over the Bowery like a metal monster. It brought soot, noise, and pollution, choking out the elegance the area once had. Theaters shut down. Residents moved out.
In their place came pawnshops, saloons, gambling dens, brothels, and flophouses. The Bowery began to rot in plain sight. Oil dripped from the tracks. Steam and coal darkened walls. The air grew thick with grit — and danger.
From Gangs to Skid Row: A Street in Freefall
By the late 1800s, the Bowery had become infamous. It ran parallel to the notorious Five Points, the roughest of New York’s neighborhoods, immortalized in Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York. Here, the Bowery Boys, Dead Rabbits, and other gangs ruled the night with fists and fire.
At the turn of the century, the Bowery earned a new nickname: Skid Row. The word “Bowery” itself became slang for someone down and out. Theodore Roosevelt once described it as a place “haunted by demons as evil as any that stalk through the pages of the Inferno.”
Out-of-towners came to “tour” the neighborhood — but only after the police cleared away any bodies left from the night before. It was spectacle. It was tragedy. It was real life on display.
Video: Survival in New York’s brutal FIVE POINTS Slum (The Bend on Mulberry Street)
But Art Was Brewing Beneath the Surface
Even during its lowest points, the Bowery attracted outcasts, rebels, and dreamers. And in time, those misfits would change the face of American culture.
By the 1960s, artists like William Burroughs and Mark Rothko began to settle in the area, drawn by low rents and a raw, unfiltered energy. The neighborhood’s edge was magnetic, and it made room for honesty — the kind only found in struggle.
Then came 1973, and the opening of a little club that would change everything: CBGB.
CBGB and the Punk Revolution
If the Bowery was crumbling, then CBGB was its heartbeat. The dive bar turned legendary music venue became the home of Patti Smith, The Ramones, Television, Talking Heads, and more.
It didn’t matter if you had a label. It didn’t matter if you could sing. What mattered was that you had something to say — and the guts to scream it.
The Bowery became a global epicenter of punk rock. It was raw. Loud. Honest. And unforgettable.
The Gentrification Wave Hits Hard
But as with every cool corner of New York, the secret didn’t stay secret. In the 1980s, gentrification came knocking. CBGB held on for as long as it could, but when a Gap store opened on the Bowery in 1988, it became clear: the street was changing.
By 2006, CBGB closed its doors. Rents skyrocketed. Luxury condos rose. Trendy bars, boutique hotels, and galleries replaced the grit.
The Bowery Today: Polished, Pricey, and a Bit Too Clean
Walk the Bowery now and it barely resembles its former self. The El is long gone. The flophouses have disappeared. The street that once echoed with guitars and growls now hums with craft cocktails and curated lighting.
To some, it’s progress. To others, it’s a kind of loss — a flattening of character in favor of convenience. In a 2006 letter to The New York Times, one former homeless man who once lived on the Bowery wrote:
“There is no longer a skid row on the Bowery… I, for one, think the city is poorer for no longer having a place where drunks and bums can go.”
That sentiment might not sit comfortably, but it speaks to something deeper. The Bowery was never about safety or polish. It was about truth. And truth isn’t always beautiful.
Conclusion: The Street That Will Always Tell New York’s Hardest Stories
The Bowery has been many things: a trail, a stage, a battleground, a refuge, and a revolution. It has witnessed glory and decay, heartbreak and rebellion. And even though its current face may be sleek and sanitized, its history pulses beneath the pavement.
Those 44 gritty images of the Bowery? They’re more than just old photos. They’re reminders of a city that’s always changing — but never forgetting.
