The Bowery Mission 227 Bowery

This 1876, five-story, red-brick, Neo-Grec, former coffin factory, designed

by architect William Jose, has housed the Bowery Mission since 1909.

Its Tudor-Revival façade was designed by Henry G. Emery in 1908-09 to

suggest a welcoming English inn. Its wide bay window projects above the

arched entrance and contains stained-glass windows illustrating the parable

of the Prodigal Son. The design of these windows is attributed to Benjamin

Sellers, who trained at the Tiffany Studios.

The Gothic Revival chapel features a high vaulted ceiling and walls embellished

with Bible verses. Visited by President Taft the year it opened, the Bowery

Mission is one of the country’s oldest and most distinguished rescue missions.

[To volunteer or contribute to Bowery Mission: http://www.bowery.org ]

More detailed description of Bowery Mission & Bowery Bank bldgs:

BOWERY BANK 124-126 BOWERY/230 GRAND STREET

BUILT: 1901

ARCHITECT: YORK & SAWYWER

STYLE: BEAUX ARTS

This Beaux Arts former bank in the French Renaissance mode was designed in 1901 by the prominent architectural firm of York and Sawyer as a neighbor to the grand Beaux Arts Bowery Savings Bank, which flanks this corner on both the Bowery and Grand Street facades. The former Bowery Bank building (not to be confused with the Bowery Savings Bank) features highly ornamented Renaissance facades with large tripartite window openings capped by pediments with acroterion returns and embellished with carved shells, triglyphs, and guttae. The windows have cast iron fluted columns and pierced iron railings suggesting balconies. A copper cornice has acanthus leaf motifs and heavy scroll brackets.

BOWERY MISSION 227 BOWERY

BUILT 1876; ALTERATIONS 1908-09; RENOVATIONS 2001

ARCHITECT: UNKNOWN; MARSHAL L. & HENRY C. EMERY; DIFFENDALE & KUBEC

STYLE: NEO-GREC/TUDOR REVIVAL & COLONIAL REVIVAL ALTERATIONS

This 1876, five-story, red-brick, Neo-Grec, former coffin factory, designed by architect William Jose, has housed the Bowery Mission since 1909. Previously located at 105 Bowery, a disastrous fire in 1898 motivated the Mission to create a building that was as fireproof as possible. Alterations of 1908-1909 by Marshall L. & Henry G. Emery ensured that all the wood of the chapel was covered up to the ceiling and all the door and window casements were covered with metal. The floors were steel and concrete with tile coverings. Dedicated on November 7, 1909, the new chapel features light colored walls embellished with verses and a high vaulted ceiling. Dominating the Tudor-Revival façade, designed by Henry G. Emery in 1908-09 to suggest a welcoming English inn, is a wide bay projecting above the arched entrance and containing four stained-glass windows illustrating the parable of the Return of the Prodigal Son. The design of these windows, that light the chapel, is attributed to Benjamin Sellers, who trained at the Tiffany Studios. A 2001 renovation by architects Diffendale & Kubec included restoration of the interior of the Gothic Revival chapel. The intricate 26-foot-high truss ceiling was repainted, men living at the mission refinished the pews and the stained-glass windows were restored by Shenandoah, Inc.

The Bowery Mission, opened by Reverend and Mrs. A.G. Ruliffson at 36 Bowery in 1879, is the third rescue mission established in America. In 1909, the year the mission opened at 227 Bowery, President William Howard Taft made a nighttime visit to the mission, entering through a rear door in Freeman Alley where the breadline formed. He gave a rousing talk in the chapel to an enthusiastic crowd that spilled out to the street. Franny Crosby, the blind poet and hymn writer who is credited with composing more than 9,000 sacred songs during her lifetime—including “The Rescue Band,” celebrating the mission movement--wrote and sang hundreds of her hymns at the Bowery Mission.