News surfaced in March that the Chinatown Salvation Army — one of the last vestiges of the street’s history as a home for the destitute — would be moving to Brooklyn to make room for luxury condos and an Ace Hotel. The building at 223-225 Bowery, which housed the organization for 101 years, functioned as a shelter, community center, and soup kitchen. It was sold for $30 million, and over the weekend, it closed its doors.
All is not lost — the Bowery Mission still gives out daily meals next door, and there are a few cheap places to spend the night close by — but the departure does feel like a bellwether for an area, which, like the rest of the city, has become increasingly unwelcome to the poor. The Chinatown Salvation Army will reopen in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn Wednesday.
(Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
