Research Catalog

Title

The Bowery : the strange history of New York's oldest street / Stephen Paul DeVillo.

Author

DeVillo, Stephen Paul

Publication

• New York, New York : Skyhorse Publishing, [2017]
• ©2017

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

258 pages, 16 pages of plates : illustrations; 24 cm

Summary

"It was the street your mother warned you about--even if you lived in San Francisco. Long associated with skid row, saloons, freak shows, violence, and vice, the Bowery often showed the worst New York City had to offer. Yet there were times when it showed its best as well. The Bowery is New York's oldest street and Manhattan's broadest boulevard. Like the city itself, it has continually reinvented itself over the centuries. Named for the Dutch farms, or bouweries, of the area, the path's lurid character was established early when it became the site of New Amsterdam's first murder. A natural spring near the Five Points neighborhood led to breweries and taverns that became home to the gangs of New York--the "Bowery B'hoys," "Plug Uglies," and "Dead Rabbits." In the Gaslight Era, teenaged streetwalkers swallowed poison in McGurk's Suicide Hall. A brighter side to the street was reflected in places of amusement and culture over the years. A young P.T. Barnum got his start there, and Harry Houdini learned showmanship playing the music halls and dime museums. Poets, singers, hobos, gangsters, soldiers, travelers, preachers, storytellers, con-men, and reformers all gathered there. Its colorful cast of characters include Peter Stuyvesant, Steve Brodie, Carrie Nation, Stephen Foster, Stephen Crane, Carrie Joy Lovett, and even Abraham Lincoln. The Bowery: The Strange History of New York's Oldest Street traces the full story of this once notorious thoroughfare from its pre-colonial origins to the present day."--Goodreads.com.

Subject

• Historic sites > New York (State) > New York
• Street addresses > New York (State) > New York
• Lieux historiques > New York (État) > New York
• Adresses postales > New York (État) > New York
• HISTORY / United States / 19th Century
• HISTORY / United States / 20th Century
• HISTORY / United States / Civil War Period (1850-1877)
• HISTORY / United States / Colonial Period (1600-1775)
• HISTORY / United States / Revolutionary Period (1775-1800)
• HISTORY / United States / State & Local / Middle Atlantic (DC, DE, MD, NJ, NY, PA)
• SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / Urban
• TRAVEL / United States / Northeast / Middle Atlantic (NJ, NY, PA)
• Historic sites
• Manners and customs
• Social conditions
• Street addresses
• Bowery (New York, N.Y. : Street) > History
• New York (N.Y.) > History
• New York (N.Y.) > Social life and customs
• New York (N.Y.) > Social conditions
• New York (N.Y.) > Biography
• New York (N.Y.) > Histoire
• New York (N.Y.) > Mœurs et coutumes
• New York (State) > New York
• New York (State) > New York > Bowery (Street)

Genre/Form

• collective biographies.
• Biographies.
• History.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages [245]-250) and index.

Contents

Chapter 1 Great Bouwerie 1 -- Chapter 2 Taverns and Tea Water 13 -- Chapter 3 Bowery Bunker Hill 26 -- Chapter 4 Pleasure Gardens 36 -- Chapter 5 Humbug 54 -- Chapter 6 Mighty Mose 66 -- Chapter 7 Dead Rabbits and Plug Uglies 78 -- Chapter 8 Dear Friends and Gentle Hearts 96 -- Chapter 9 Women in Tights 108 -- Chapter 10 Suicide Hall 120 -- Chapter 11 Living Curiosities 140 -- Chapter 12 Mayor of the Bowery 153 -- Chapter 13 Nickel Kickers 162 -- Chapter 14 I'll Never Go There Anymore 173 -- Chapter 15 Boulevard of the Forgotten 199 -- Chapter 16 Sneaky Pete 212 -- Chapter 17 Operation Bowery 221 -- Chapter 18 A New Bowery? 228.

ISBN

• 9781510726864
• 1510726861
• 9781510726871 (canceled/invalid)

OCLC

• ocn974699762
• 974699762
• SCSB-14648159

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries