The Bowery Mission

Broad support for landmarking one of the country’s oldest extant Christian missions. On June 12, 2012, Landmarks held a public hearing to consider designating the Bowery Mission at 227 Bowery in Manhattan’s Lower East Side as an individual landmark. The red brick neo-Grec store-and-loft building was constructed in 1876 for use by an undertaker. The Bowery Mission relocated to the building in 1909 after its former home at 55 Bowery was demolished to accommodate the approach to the Manhattan Bridge. In 1908 and 1909, the Mission altered 227 Bowery by installing four stained-glass windows with mock half-timbering at the second floor. The Mission is one of the oldest extant Christian missions in the country. In 1909, President William H. Taft made a speech to 600 men at the Mission, and the building soon became famous for the bread lines that once queued outside.

The Mission President and CEO Ed Morgan testified in support of designation. Morgan spoke of the desperate conditions in the Bowery at the time the Mission moved into the building. He (more…)