Save 295, Bowery, Lower East Side, Manhattan, New York, NYC, USA

One of my last research jobs, (awhile ago, back when the Concorde jet crashed, which I once also saw at Mirabel Airport outside Montreal, Quebec picking up a Sir Freddie Laker flown crew member to do archaeological testing along the St. Lawrence River in New York, once new and beautiful but now closing due to lack of use), was examining the lots near this site and it too for a company called "Wall" something. It was almost as if we were told (myself and another) that these locations had already been decided to be condemned, the link shows both properties also included, others examined mostly current parking lots or empty nearby, some once cemeteries since moved. Here is some of my notes about these standing structures. According to the stamp issued by the US Postal Service, "First Germans arrive 1683 in Pennsylvania aboard the 'Concord'". The 295 Bowery "Steuben House" (NYC Directory 1869) and adjoining "Germania Assembly Rooms" are important to the history of the City in a number of cases. For example, the first woman elected to the executive branch of a union, Kate Mullaney of Troy, NY, was elected in the Germania Hall, while sitting next to feminist Susan B. Anthony, who appears on a US $1 coin, recently replaced by another commemorating the woman who helped guide the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Sacawajea. The 96th Armory was once housed in there according to old maps. Checking with the records of the State of New York there were, however, problems in determining what the designation meant. i.e. the history of the 96th seems shrouded in mystery. What follows are some tentative hypotheses for them. 1) Germania Assembly Rooms (lower structure next to the tall one) part of or associated with the Germania Bank of New York City founded in 1857. Now part of the Apple Bank for Savings. At this time 1857, the Trinity Church establishes an outreach center on the Bowery to provide food and counseling to needy families as the number of unemployed in New York City reaches almost 40,000 according to the Trinity Church Internet site. 2) The Regimental Records of Archives in the New York Library in Albany, NY have a section for the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) citing a 96th Regiment. Further investigation showed that the men mustered in from Northern New York and Vermont with a few from New York City. According to the "Encyclopedia Americana - International Edition" (30 volumes, 1st published in 1829, Grolier, Inc., Danbury, CT 1992) Leo Hershkowitz, a Queens College, CUNY professor who has also researched for archaeologists early New Amsterdam, for a site between Whitehall and Broad streets, in lower Manhattan: "The Street is one of the oldest in the United States. It was known originally as Bouwerie Lane, from Governor Peter Stuyvesant's bouwerie (farm) which was nearby. Later it was called Bowery Road, but in 1807, it became simply Bowery." - Vol. 4, p. 365. The famous "7th Avenue Armory" where the antique trade meets every year, the "first" built with private monies, first was located on a large site on 6th street and near 2nd Avenue just a few blocks from 295 Bowery. The National Guard, with its armories, started here in New York City, as the new Republic met here its first capital. It is almost odd to read of later "National Guards" associated with other states, the original here in New York City. These here may have been older veterans called out to protect Washington, D.C., later disbanded on Brother (Big) Island at the end of the American Civil War. Another reference calls into question the behavior of the National Guard during the "draft riots". An officer in charge was court martialed, which I had not the time to further research. The "draft riots" were mostly caused, it's thought, over the exclusion of draftees upon finding a substitute or paying $300, a large sum at the time. Perhaps the records of the court martial would show otherwise? Suicide Hall, 295 Bowery