Sun Hotel (formerly the Union Hotel)

86 Bowery | Little Italy | built 1920

Open on the map3 entries

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

  1. 1881

    H.J. Schwartzmann rebuilds the upper floors of the Bowery and Hester corner building after a fire

    The corner building at 86-88 Bowery, also numbered 140 Hester Street, was designed by George DaCunha in 1880. After a fire, H.J. Schwartzmann rebuilt its upper floors in 1881. The six-story brick structure keeps its original two-over-two wood windows and a simple cornice, which helps make it among the best-preserved buildings on the Bowery, according to the district nomination.

    Source: National Register nomination

  2. 1896

    The Bowery clothing house at 86-88 Bowery has become a store and lodging house by 1896

    The corner building at 86-88 Bowery began as a clothing house with offices and had been converted by 1896 into a store with a lodging house above. It later became the Union Hotel, part of the Lyons Hotel Company chain, and is listed under that name in 1920. Today it operates as the Sun Hotel, and the nomination notes it also sits within the historic diamond district.

    “Clothing house & offices; By 1896, store & lodging house. Union Hotel (Lyons Hotel Co.) (1920); Currently Sun Hotel. Also part of the historic diamond district.”

    Source: National Register nomination

  3. 1948

    The Union at 140 Hester is one of eleven Lyons lodging houses on the Bowery in 1948

    In 1948 the letterhead of Nathaniel H. Lyons's hotel company listed twenty Lyons Houses, thirteen of them in Manhattan. Eleven of those thirteen stood on the Bowery, among them the Union at 140 Hester Street, on the corner of Bowery. The nomination credits Lyons as a pioneer in making the lodging house a legitimate business, though it cites a 1928 author, Pink, who held that standards in the chain stayed low.

    “In 1948, the Lyons Hotel letterhead listed twenty “Lyons Houses.” Of 13 houses in Manhattan, 11 were on the Bowery. Union, 140 Hester (corner of Bowery)…”

    Source: National Register nomination

Nearby

All 76 buildings with stories in Little Italy