A stereograph of the first Bowery in New York city.  The card reads "Along the Noted Bowery."

This photograph (a hand-tinted black & white image) shows the crowds that spilled through the streets of the Bowery.  Working left to right we see a Rifle Gallery, the sign for the Red Devil Rider roller coaster (this lit up with white incandescent lights at night), Henderson's (at the back of the photo), the S and T of the Stauch's sign and the sign for the Drop the Dips roller coaster.  If you look closely at the picture you will see some interesting things like flowered Victorian hats, several barkers and a photography stand.  Photo looks west.

The first picture is of the Bowery at night with the Stauch's sign and light from the buildings lining the street illuminating the people's paths.  The other postcard shows the Bowery in the foreground with the Observation Tower and the Dreamland tower in the background.  Both photos look east.

If any part of Coney never slept it was the Bowery.  People came here to be entertained with drinks, songs and possibly sex.  Upon returning to Coney Island in 1904 Albert Bigelow Paine said the following in "The New Coney Island."  "Remembering that the Bowery used to be the worst section of old Coney, we went over there.  But even the Bowery was changed,- laundered as it were,- and well-dressed, well-mannered women were walking about entirely unprotected, seeing the sights and enjoying the picturesque human panorama of other sight-seers.  Of course it was still a whirl of noise and exhibition and refreshment, but the noise was within the limits of law and order and the exhibition and refreshment were more wholesome."  Century Magazine, August 1904, page 533.

The Bowery at night was a magical place full of fast women, mischievous men and lots of beer & liquor.  Men and women would often meet at the beginning of the day, spend it together and then end things together on the Bowery.

These two photos (from the Library of Congress) are some great views of the Bowery.  The first shows Steeplechase Park in the background.  This entrance was where Tilyou's Walk met the Bowery was littered with signs.  Some of them read "Steeplechase leads the World, We Told You So," the lighted sign says "Geo. C. Tilyou's Great Steeplechase" and "Knights of Columbus Field Day at Beautiful Steeplechase Park, Tuesday, August 25, 1903."  The sign in the foreground reads "Furnished Rooms/Tolet Up///$tairs."  The other photo shows Flynn's Hotel, which advertises Valentines Export Beer.  First photo looks west, unsure of second photo.

Fires were always a problem at Coney Island.  Some of the worst outside of the parks happened along the bowery because the many buildings were squeezed in tightly and firefighting equipment sometimes had trouble getting to the location.  The following report describes one of those fires.  The Daily Picayune, May 27, 1899- "New York, May 26, 1899---Coney Island property, to the value of nearly a million dollars, was destroyed by fire early this morning, twenty acres in the heart of the summer resort section, the district known as the "Bowery", being reduced to ashes. The 200 buildings burned were located between the Bowery and the ocean....the fire made shelterless for a time a native and transient population of about 8,300....and silenced no less than 100 pianos which for years have assisted in merry-making at Coney Island"

Stauch's was one of the most popular stops on the Bowery.  It was owned by Louis Stauch, a small man who had worked on the island for most of his life and opened Stauch's in 1904.  The building housed a restaurant, a large dance hall and a cigar store.  After stepping inside guests saw all kinds of things.  The Grill Room had a beautiful room with crown molding on the ceilings and the ballroom could hold thousands of people and was always bouncing to the sounds of the Al Ferguson Band.  Cigarette, cigar and pipe smoke always filled the air and the beer flowed from the taps all night long.  According to historian Richard Snow Louis Stauch spent most of his time in the building and in 25 years he never spent an evening away from Coney Island.

This postcard shows Coney in the world of Victorian America.  Henderson's and Stauch's are at the back of the Bowery and the booth on the right side of the foreground says "Step in and Take Your Own Picture- 5 Cents."  Upon his 1896 visit Julian Ralph did not have a high opinion of the Bowery.  In the story "Coney Island" he wrote the following about a couple he met: "What Barney and Julia, from the tenements, go to 'the Bowery' for I do not know, unless it is to enjoy the triumph of their own sagacity in not ever, by any chance, being victimized by the museum men and the fakirs who pray upon the unsophisticated."  Scribner's Magazine, July 1896, page 18.

This photo looks down the Bowery from Steeplechase Park.  The date is before May of 1911 as the Iron Tower can be seen in the distance, it burned in the Dreamland Fire.