Bridgeview House

2 Elizabeth Street | also 8 Elizabeth Street, 6A Elizabeth Street, 6B Elizabeth Street | Chinatown | built 1985

Open on the map5 entries

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1843

    January 31

    The Virginia Minstrels warm up at the Branch Hotel before their first stage show

    The Virginia Minstrels, a four-man troupe whose first stage show is often cited as the birth of minstrelsy, performed on January 31, 1843, at the National Theatre on Chatham Square. According to the Bowery Historic District nomination, they first played a trial set in the billiard room of the Branch Hotel at 36 Bowery, which occupied the lot where Bridgeview House stands today.

    “The minstrels performed a warm up show in the billiards room of the Branch Hotel, 36 Bowery, prior to taking the stage at the National…”

    Source: National Register nomination

  2. 1857

    July 4

    Hotel guests at 36 Bowery hold off a rioting mob until the Bowery Boys arrive

    During the Dead Rabbits riot of July 4, 1857, a mob of gang members attacked police officers near Chatham Square and then turned on the Branch Hotel at 36 Bowery, which stood on the lot where Bridgeview House now stands. The terrified guests held the rioters at bay until the Bowery Boys and the Atlantic Guards arrived to help them.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1879

    Rev. Albert Ruliffson opens the Bowery Mission at 36 Bowery

    The Rev. Albert Ruliffson and his wife founded the Bowery Mission in 1879, and its first home was a three-story building at 36 Bowery, on the lot where Bridgeview House now stands. There the couple ran the Bowery Mission Restaurant, a clean, cheap place to eat in a district crowded with saloons. The mission became one of the country's best-known gospel rescue missions after it moved to 227 Bowery in 1909.

    Source: Internet Archive

  4. 1891

    A Third Avenue elevated power station replaces the old Branch Hotel at Bowery and Bayard

    The Bowery Historic District nomination says the Branch Hotel, a stagecoach stop in the nineteenth century, stood on the site where 50 Bayard Street was later built. In 1891 a Third Avenue elevated power station took its place. That building in turn was cleared for the eight-story brick apartment house that now covers the Bayard Street end of the block.

    Source: National Register nomination

  5. 1960

    Horace Ginsbern and Associates build an eight-story apartment house at 50 Bayard Street

    The Bowery Historic District inventory lists the brick apartment building at 50 Bayard Street as the work of Horace Ginsbern and Associates in 1960. It rises eight stories and takes up the Bayard Street quarter of the block running from Elizabeth Street to the Bowery. The nomination lists its style as none in particular.

    Source: National Register nomination

Further reading

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