The Bowery House and one its cubicles

There’s no better symbol of the gentrification of the Bowery than the Bowery House, according to the New York Times, whose third and fourth floors offer chic hotel rooms for young, hip visitors above a second floor flophouse. Located at 220 Bowery, the Bowery House was known as the Prince Hotel when it was built in the late 1920s and packed 202 cubicles and a clerk’s booth on three floors with shared utilities.

Around 1999, Click modeling agency co-owner Joey Grill bought the structure intending to create a dorm-like housing for models and actors. He stopped accepting new tenants, moved the remaining ones to the second floor and leased the top floors to a non-profit homeless services agency called Common Ground. … [more]

220 Bowery and a glimpse inside one of the new hostel rooms

The former tenement building at 220 Bowery is undergoing a hostel conversion and is slated to open to guests some time next month, according to Bowery Boogie. The transformation of the 17,000-square-foot building, which also houses a restaurant supplies store on the ground floor, will create “a hospitality concept that embraces the deep cultural roots of the Bowery by providing affordable and stylish accommodations,” says a description on the official Facebook page of the upcoming Bowery House. … [more]