The first attempt to change the name of the city’s oldest thoroughfare appears to have been in 1895.
A New York Times article reported a rumor that the Bowery, an English corruption of the Dutch term for farm, bouwerie, would soon be known as Parkhurst Avenue.
It had to be a joke. Parkhurst was Charles Parkhurst, a social reformer who battled the Tammany-backed gangs and saloons that made up the tacky, crime-ridden Bowery in the late 19th century.
The next try at a less low-rent moniker, according to a Times piece from 1897, was Piccadilly. Why Piccadilly? It was never explained—but the proposal didn’t gain any ground.
Another stab at a new name to shed the Bowery stigma happened in 1916. Business owners who wanted a “fresh start” suggested Central Broadway and Cooper Avenue. Dignified, yes, but very dull.
Again, the suggestions went no where. After that, Bowery merchants and residents seem to have thrown in the towel and accepted that their street would always be the city’s skid row.
[Photo: Bowery in 1910, NYPL Digital Collection]
Tags: Bouwerie, bowery, Bowery Piccadilly, Bowery Skid Row, Bowery street scene, Change name of the Bowery, Charles Parkhurst, Cooper Avenue Bowery, New York City Bowery, New York in the 1890s
Ephemeral New York 
August 24, 2012 at 11:20 am |
I LOVE that 1910 photo!
I’m glad the name was never changed. The Bowery is unique… or is it? I’m not aware of a similarly-named street anyplace else, are you?
August 24, 2012 at 5:10 pm |
[…] What if the Bowery had a different name? (Ephemeral New York) […]
August 24, 2012 at 8:01 pm |
Bowery is once again a fashionable name, so I doubt anyone would change it now. But the 2 local CB’s that split the Bowery are approving bars and clubs so fast, that it’ll only be a decade before it is back to a skid row of worn out, retread, former hot-spots. It’s a shame that our elected leaders do not understand how communities rise and fall on their approvals of alcoholic establishments.
March 7, 2013 at 4:28 am |
[…] 19th century history of the Bowery is well known: it went from premier entertainment district to a skid row of cheap theaters, […]
March 25, 2013 at 4:39 am |
[…] President Jack was against a name change, though he did propose renaming the Bowery “Third Avenue South” to get rid of the Bowery’s “connotation of drunken […]
October 19, 2013 at 8:28 pm |
[…] What if the Bowery had a different name? (Ephemeral New York) […]
March 21, 2016 at 5:41 pm |
And today, most people don’t know that the address is simply Bowery with no Avenue or Street following.
January 23, 2022 at 11:49 pm |
[…] women—including Mrs. Russell Sage (wife of the financier) and Mrs. Charles Parkhurst (wife of the well-known social reformer and pastor of the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church) weighed […]