{"id":15683,"date":"2022-07-06T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-06T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/content-manager\/?p=15683"},"modified":"2022-07-06T15:01:28","modified_gmt":"2022-07-06T19:01:28","slug":"the-history-of-the-bowery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/the-history-of-the-bowery\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bowery: NYC\u2019s Oldest Street"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n
Between NoHo and the East Village lies the oldest street in New York City. The Bowery isn\u2019t just a street though. It\u2019s also a tiny neighborhood that has carved out an identity in the city since it was first used pre-colonization. This old street has a story to tell. Sometimes it\u2019s sordid, other times it\u2019s artistic, but no matter what, it\u2019s always unique. The history of this street is also the history of NYC. They are forever intertwined with one another, and will continue to be for the rest of this city\u2019s great history. So let\u2019s take a look at The Bowery and its impact on NYC.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Before Europeans even thought to set foot in this land, The Bowery was already an important part of the civilizations that existed here. The Lenape nation used The Bowery as a footpath<\/a> that spanned the entire island. This path ran north to south and served as the island\u2019s main nerve when trading with other nations. It also served as a cultural marker for the Lenape, which led to meeting and storytelling locations in the south, and places ideal for farming to the north. The path was so prevalent that, when the Dutch arrived to the Island in the late 1600\u2019s, they saw the path as an opportunity to establish a colony.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n After the Dutch forced the Lenape out of lower Manhattan, they established a military fort as well as a few farms or \u201cbouwerie\u201d which is where the street got its name. Many people grabbed land around the Bowery including the first freed enslaved people<\/a> in the New World. The street was so popular with farmers and the growing community that the last Governor of New Amsterdam, Peter Stuyvesant, retired there after transferring the island over to the British in 1664. The British saw the potential of the road and renamed it \u201cBowery,\u201d a more anglicanized spelling of the Dutch word.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Once the British turned \u201cThe Bouwerie\u201d into \u201cThe Bowery\u201d and \u201cNew Amsterdam\u201d into \u201cNew York,\u201d the Bowery became a popular destination for the people of NYC, even if they were just visiting<\/a>. The road would mostly remain peaceful farmland until 1766, when plans to expand the city were laid out. The Bowery was chosen to become a small shopping hub, mostly for food grown from the farms. Several taverns were built near the street as well. However, things got a bit hectic when the Revolutionary War started.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n