Skip to main content
Trade Books For Courses Tradebooks for Courses

Devil's Mile

The Rich, Gritty History of the Bowery

Alice Sparberg Alexiou

St. Martin's Press

opens in a new window
opens in a new window Devil's Mile Download image

ISBN10: 1250021383
ISBN13: 9781250021380

Hardcover

304 Pages

$28.99

CA$37.99

Request Desk Copy
Request Exam Copy

TRADE BOOKS FOR COURSES NEWSLETTER

Sign up to receive information about new books, author events, and special offers.

Sign up now

The Bowery was a synonym for despair throughout most of the 20th century. The very name evoked visuals of drunken bums passed out on the sidewalk, and New Yorkers nicknamed it “Satan’s Highway,” “The Mile of Hell,” and “The Street of Forgotten Men.” For years the little businesses along the Bowery—stationers, dry goods sellers, jewelers, hatters—periodically asked the city to change the street’s name. To have a Bowery address, they claimed, was hurting them; people did not want to venture there.

But when New York exploded into real estate frenzy in the 1990s, developers discovered the Bowery. They rushed in and began tearing down. Today, Whole Foods, hipster night spots, and expensive lofts have replaced the old flophouses and dive bars, and the bad old Bowery no longer exists.

In Devil’s Mile, Alice Sparberg Alexiou tells the story of The Bowery, starting with its origins, when forests covered the surrounding area, and through the pre-Civil War years, when country estates of wealthy New Yorkers lined this thoroughfare. She then describes The Bowery’s deterioration in stunning detail, starting in the post-bellum years. She ends her historical exploration of this famed street in the present, bearing witness as the old Bowery buildings, and the memories associated with them, are disappearing.

Reviews

Praise for Devil's Mile

"Walks readers through the cultural history of the Bowery—from creation to its vanishing remnants that remain today."am New York

"With the Bowery as the common thread binding together centuries of stories, Devil’s Mile introduces us to the wide-ranging cast of characters—among them functionaries, farmers, artists and toughs—responsible for making Bowery history, then and now."—Kerri Culhane, architectural and urban historian and author, The Bowery National Register of Historic Places Nomination

"New York historian Alexiou enlivens the street’s history with insightful portraits of the street’s denizens. A very valuable addition to any urban-history collection."Booklist (starred review)

"This anecdote-laden urban history of New York City’s Bowery by Alexiou makes for addictive reading. The chapters on the city’s tumultuous early days are top-rate urban history, yet Alexiou hits her stride in describing the 19th century, when the Bowery was 'America’s center of sin.' Astutely written and smartly researched, this is a fascinating micro-take on New York’s cycle of boom and bust." —Publisher's Weekly

Reviews from Goodreads

BOOK EXCERPTS

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER ONE

THE DUTCH


In the early summer of 1625, three Dutch vessels—the Paert (Horse), the Koe (Cow), and the Schaep (Sheep)—dropped anchor off the southern tip of the island that native inhabitants...

About the author

Alice Sparberg Alexiou

ALICE SPARBERG ALEXIOU is the author of Jane Jacobs: Urban Visionary and The Flatiron: The New York Landmark and the Incomparable City That Arose with It. She is a contributing editor at Lilith magazine and she blogs for the Gotham Center. She is a graduate of Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and has a Ph.D. in classics from Fordham University. She lives in New York.

Stefanie Dworkin