300 Bowery

NoHo | built 1878

Open on the map3 entries

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. 1878

    Irish-born architect Charles Mettam designs 300 Bowery for the Humphreys family

    In 1878 George W. Humphreys put up a four-story brick building at 300 Bowery to plans by Charles Mettam, a Dublin-born architect who had arrived in New York in 1848. Mettam also drew the New-York Historical Society's 1857 building at Second Avenue and East 11th Street, since demolished, and several cast-iron fronts in SoHo. The lot was one of six carved from the estate of Horatio N. Humphreys, and the building stayed in the family until 1946.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1880

    Upper floors of 300 Bowery fill with lodgers within a year of opening

    Although the 1878 plans called for a store, the three upper floors of 300 Bowery were a lodging house within a year. The 1880 census, which counted it together with 302 next door, found forty-three single men, mostly laborers, drivers, waiters, cooks and clerks. The two buildings housed 106 men in 1905 and stayed a single-room-occupancy hotel until 1991, when they became residential lofts. Hotel suppliers Bass & Bass kept the ground floor from about 1930 to 1970.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  3. 1883

    Child-welfare society raids Spencer's Palace Music Hall at 300-302 Bowery

    In 1883 the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children raided Spencer's Palace Music Hall, which occupied 300-302 Bowery. The society argued that cheap Bowery music halls and variety shows were a leading source of crime among the very young. Proprietor Sandy Spencer was sent to jail for violating the excise laws.

    “In 1883, the SPCC raid on Spencer's Palace Music Hall (300-302 Bowery), resulted in Sandy Spencer being sent to jail for violation the excise laws.”

    Source: National Register nomination

Nearby

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