Tonight, Learn More About Big Tim Sullivan, ‘King of the Bowery’
Big Tim Sullivan (r), Photo: Library of Congress
As part of the Lower East Side History Month festivities, tonight the Bowery Alliance of Neighbors and Grace Church High School welcome author Alice Sparberg Alexiou to speak about the (in)famous Timothy Sullivan, or as many knew him, the puported “King of the Bowery.”
Sullivan resided at the Occidental Hotel (now the SoHotel) at 146 Bowery, but also kept a clubhouse at 207 Bowery. He rose up to become a Tammany political boss, and his empire commanded everything below 14th Street, from the 1880s until his death in 1913.
“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.” Essentially a modern day Robin Hood for the Lower East Side.
Learn all about his colorful candor and corruption at the “illustrative talk” tonight at 6:30pm, at Grace Church High School, 46 Cooper Square (Between Astor Place & 4th St.). Free admission.
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