The Bowery Mission

227 Bowery | Lower East Side | built 1876

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The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

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

  1. 1876

    Coffin maker Jonas Stolts builds 227 Bowery

    Jonas Stolts, a coffin manufacturer and undertaker, put up this five-story red-brick building in 1876 from plans by William Jose, a Prussian-born architect who designed many apartment buildings around the Bowery, in SoHo and Tribeca, and in Greenwich Village. The Stolts family held the property for close to 70 years. They leased it to the Bowery Mission starting in 1908.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1909

    November 6

    The Bowery Mission moves in after its old home is torn down for the Manhattan Bridge approach

    The mission, founded in 1879, had to leave 55 Bowery when that building was demolished to make way for the Manhattan Bridge approach. It leased 227 Bowery, and the architects Marshall and Henry Emery remodeled it in 1908 and 1909, adding a second-floor chapel in the Gothic Revival style. Its stained-glass windows show the parable of the Prodigal Son and are credited to Benjamin Sellers, a Tiffany Studios alumnus.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  3. 1909

    Hungry men line up nightly in Freeman Alley behind the new Bowery Mission

    After moving into 227 Bowery, which had been a coffin factory, the Bowery Mission altered the building so that a rear door opened onto Freeman Alley, off Rivington Street. The mission's planners wanted the breadline to form in the alley, and in 1909 hungry men lined up there every night. Ephemeral New York observes that the alley, now best known for a restaurant, apparently had no closed end at the time.

    Source: Ephemeral New York

  4. 1909

    President William Howard Taft speaks to 600 men at the Bowery Mission

    Soon after the Bowery Mission moved into 227 Bowery in 1909, President William Howard Taft visited and spoke to 600 men, according to the Landmarks Preservation Commission report. Many other prominent figures have appeared at the mission, which became famous for its breadline.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  5. 1920

    Franklin D. Roosevelt speaks at the Bowery Mission during his vice-presidential campaign

    Politicians were regular visitors. New York Governor Alfred E. Smith spoke to residents at the mission's 40th anniversary in 1919, and in 1920 Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Democratic nominee for vice president, spoke there while campaigning.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

Further reading

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All 78 buildings with stories in Lower East Side