Native American footpath, Dutch farm road and site of the city’s first Free Black homesteads, the Bowery stretches 1.25 miles from Chatham Square to Cooper Square. An early social hub for the working class, gangs, gays and immigrant Irish, Italians, Chinese, Jews and Germans, it was “the most interesting place in New York” to author Stephen Crane. It has important links to Washington, Lincoln, baseball, streetcars, tap dance, tattoo, Yiddish theater, vaudeville, Stephen Foster, Irving Berlin, Harry Houdini and even Mae West. A long-time home to rescue missions, it is also known for its affordable jewelry, lighting and restaurant supply districts. Its artists’ community helped foster abstract expressionism, Beat literature, improvisational jazz and punk rock. New York City’s oldest, most architecturally diverse street, it was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 2013. Despite that honor, it is one of the city’s most endangered historic streetscapes.

This tour is limited to 30 participants

FEES: $20 for Victorian Society New York members, $30 for others

To purchase a ticket online please click here
To reserve your spot for this tour via check
Make checks payable to Metropolitan Chapter VSA
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Tours
Metropolitan Chapter VSA
232 East 11th Street
New York NY 10003

Participants in our educational tours must be in excellent health and able to participate safely in the activities involved. If you have any doubt about your ability to participate fully due to health conditions or disabilities, please contact Victorian Society New York at info@vicsocny.org or (212) 886-3742. Victorian Society New York reserves the right to decline to accept or refuse to retain any person as a member of our tours at any time.