On The Bowery

—268 Bowery —

By the early 1880s this Italianate style building had become the Great Northern Hotel, where in 1884, 18 year-old Frank Samsel, a brush maker from Bohemia, Germany killed himself with a pistol in Room No. 38. In the early 20th century, as Windsor Lodging House, with a capacity of 200 beds at 20 cents a bed, it also became a notorious thieves den. However, it was also home to Emil Brunner, known to his acquaintances and fellow-lodgers as the "honestest man in the Bowery." Although only earning 50 cents a day as a cleaner, Brunner found and returned a pocketbook containing $47 and refused a reward.
Most unusual for this area, the Dorchester Stone façade, a yellowish sandstone, was quarried in New Brunswick or Nova Scotia, Canada. It retains many of the original 1871 Italianate features, such as its window hoods, brackets, cornice and cast iron fire escapes.
In the 1870s, it was part of a large factory, office and salesroom complex of buildings for cigar manufacturer, Lichtenstein Bros. & Co. that fronted on Bowery, Houston and Elizabeth Streets.
-Mitchell Grubler, Landmarks Committee Chair, Bowery Alliance of Neighbors

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