The Bowery: The Strange History of New York’s Oldest Street

DeVillo (The Bronx River in History and Folklore) presents a cheerful, accessible history of Manhattan seen through the lens of its oldest street, the Bowery. The name is derived from the Dutch word bouwerie (farm) and dates back to the 17th century, when Dutch settlers established six farms on a trail north of New Amsterdam that became known as Bouwerie Lane. DeVillo tracks the central role this strip of land played in the transformation of New Amsterdam into the contemporary city of New York. The Bowery, he argues, was significant in the Big Apple’s cultural evolution: its theaters hosted prominent 19th-century talent such as Junius Booth, P.T. Barnum began his career at the Bowery Menagerie, and the city’s first movie theaters were built there. It was also a living laboratory for mass transit, from the 1832 debut of the world’s first horse-drawn passenger railway through the rise and fall of the Third Avenue El. DeVillo’s narrative continues through the street’s devolution into a synonym for skid row. Written in a witty, conversational tone (“Like many a later New Yorker, [he] insisted on giving the out-of-towner a grand tour”), this is a breezy, fact-filled trip through NYC history. B&w photos. (Nov.)