Sep 23 2008
Inside 190 Bowery
Ever wondered what was behind the imposing urban facade of 190 Bowery? NY Magazine has this slideshow accompanying their article claiming that photographer Jay Maisel pulled off “the greatest real estate coup of all time”* when he bought the former Germania Bank building for $102,000 in 1966.
For years I was under the mistaken impression that the coup had been pulled off by poet John Giorno, who lives in the former YMCA building up the street that also once housed William S. “Uncle Bill” Burroughs and is known as the Bunker. Probably I got the wrong idea from an ex-boyfriend of mine who misrepresented it that way while bragging about hanging out there with Uncle Bill back in the late 70s. Poseur.
* I think NY Mag is wrong. The greatest real estate coup of all time is Joseph Papp, Public Theater (the former Astor Library), 1967, $1.
