The Bowery Mission

 charitable organization, Tudor (architecture), 1876_construction, religious organisation

5-story (with 3-story wing) Neo-Grec/Tudor-revival mission house originally completed in 1876 as a store-and-factory building for Stolts, a manufacturer of coffins and undertaker. It was designed by William Jose. 227 Bowery is constructed with red brick and has four bays of windows with incised stone lintels and sills at the third through fifth stories. The ground floor has three arch-headed openings with keystone lintels, a bracketed cornice and stone banding.

This neo-Grec style building was altered in 1908-09 by architects Marshall L. Emery and Henry G. Emery when the Bowery Mission leased the building. Four stained-glass windows surrounded by Tudor Revival style mock half-timbering and a small shed roof covered with clay tiles were installed at the second story. The interior of the second story was also remodeled into a Gothic Revival style chapel at this time. The second-story stained-glass windows depict the Biblical story of the Return of the Prodigal Son and are attributed to Benjamin Sellers.

The Bowery Mission was established in 1879 on the Bowery and moved from its location at 55 Bowery to 227 Bowery in 1909 when 55 Bowery was demolished for the approach to the Manhattan Bridge. The Bowery Mission is a religious-based organization that provides food, shelter, employment and medical assistance to indigent homeless men. One of the oldest Christian missions still in existence in this country, the Mission became famous for its bread line.

The The three-story building next to the mission is a circa 1830 Federal-style house. It was modified in 1895 to the Italianate style it retains today and was unified with the mission next door in 1980.

s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/2494.pdf