146-8 Bowery

Though it has undergone several renovations and name changes over the years, this is believed to be the oldest continuously operating hotel in New York City, welcoming guests since at least 1835.
According to the classic book, Old Bowery Days, published in 1931, the building originally housed a tavern known as New Bull's Head, dating to 1805. Between 1825 and 1830, it was the Bowery House and by 1835, the Military and Civic Hotel. By the 1840s, it was the Westchester House - described as an "Old, dingy, yellow painted structure" in an 1875 memoir - before taking on the name Occidental Hotel in the mid-1870s.
The Occidental's bar and restaurant was a hotspot for politicians, entertainers and sports figures through the early 20th century, serving boxing champions John. L. Sullivan and James Jackson Jeffries, and political heavyweights like Teddy Roosevelt and Al Smith.
On April 3, 1852, the infamous William "Boss" Tweed celebrated his birthday here, and from 1900 to 1913, it served as both headquarters and residence to State Senator "Big" Tim Sullivan.
The Occidental Hotel lost most of its prestige once Tim Sullivan passed away in 1913, and by the time the Great Depression hit in the 1930s, the building hosted cheap lodging under the names Commercial



and Pioneer Hotel.
- Eric Ferrera, author of The Bowery and founder of the Lower East Side History Project (leshp.org)

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