Bowery Alliance of Neighbors & Grace Church High School present:
“Big Tim” Sullivan:
King of the Bowery
An illustrated talk by
Alice Sparberg Alexiou
Born to Irish immigrants and raised in the Five Points ghetto, Timothy Sullivan began working at age 8. Enriched by saloons, theatres, and gambling, he became a Tammany political boss who controlled everything below 14th Street from the 1880s until death in 1913, serving as state assemblyman and U.S. congressman. Adored by Lower East Siders, he gave out shoes to the needy and helped mothers bail sons out of jail or pay off landlords to avoid eviction. The “King of the Bowery” lived at the Occidental Hotel (now SoHotel) at 146 Bowery and kept a clubhouse at 207 Bowery. Remembered as a colorful, quintessentially corrupt politician, he supported labor and women’s rights, and pushed America’s first gun control law through the New York legislature.
In 1913, The New York Times reported that 75,000 lined the Bowery for his funeral cortege.
When: May 24, 2017 (Wed) 6:30pm
Where: Grace Church High School 46 Cooper Square
(Btwn Astor Place & 4th St.)
Free admission!
A Lower East Side History Month event
Transportation: 6 train to Astor Place / R, N to 8th Street, F to Broadway-Lafayette or 2nd Ave.
Info: