Demolition, History, and a Whole Lotta Mystery at 150 Bowery

150 Bowery, a one-story taxpayer that for the past quarter-century was home to a lighting store at the NW corner of Bowery and Broome, has been gutted, but what's to come of the site remains a mystery. A few months back, the plan was for a new outpost of Billyburg's Zenkichi restaurant, complete with greenery up top, but that scheme was scuttled when the nightlife commandos at CB2 pushed back. The irregularly-shaped 7,000 square foot lot, covering 150-154 Bowery and 342-244 Broome across from the colorful Sohotel, is owned by the heirs of the late Sol Goldman, once the largest private landlord in NYC. DOB records show that the current work is being performed under the auspices of his daughter and heir to his empire Jane Goldman. But that's just what's happening right now?the site has a long history, sitting as it does along the Bowery, the original road heading north out of town since the Dutch first arrived a few hundred years ago.

Back in 1942, famed crime photog Weegee grabbed one his most noted shots here, when he snapped the dead body of Andrew Izzo after he robbed a pool hall and made a run for it before the cops shot him in the face. A hundred years earlier this stretch of Broome between Elizabeth and the Bowery was home to a row of three-story flats and the big Broome Street Baptist Church (demo'd circa 1928 and replaced with a big ice storage building, now the Ice House Condominium). The corner back then was home to purveyors of diamonds and fashionable men's duds, but that began to change in the 1870s when the Third Avenue elevated train went up along the Bowery.

In the 1920s noted banjo maker G. F. Puntolillo had his shop at 344 Broome. During the Depression 154 Bowery was home to the Modern Barber College, where a shave and a trim, plus a tattoo or two, could be had.

150 Bowery has since been chopped down to a single story, the low brick walls and surroundings lately tagged and wheat pasted. Now the Bowery, from north to south, is undergoing a sea of changes, and down here at the remotest edges of Nolita, ultra-mod hotels, from Mondrian to Nolitan, are going in and restaurants and bars are as plentiful as spent syringes used to be. What's next for 150 Bowery? Gallery? Boutique? Cupcake Bar? Tipsters in the know: shoot us the info.
· 150 Bowery - Alt App Type 2 [NYC Department of Buildings]
· Zenkichi Bowery coverage [Eater]
· Sohotel Brings a Bit of Color to the Bowery [Curbed]
· Bowery Gentrification coverage [Curbed]

150 Bowery

150 Bowery, New York, NY