The past lives of the “bunker” on the Bowery

"The first people to hang out at the red brick, Queen Anne–style building that opened in 1885 at 222 Bowery were working-class men. At the time, the Bowery was a cacophonous circus of vaudeville theaters, beer gardens, pawnbrokers, rowdies, and streetcars all under the screeching rails of the Third Avenue elevated train. Much of New York loved this, of course, and lots of men flocked there, living in the five-cent hotels or in doorways. Reformer Jacob Riis estimated their numbers at more than nine thousand. ... By the time 222 Bowery was turned back into a residence in the late 1950s, more artists and writers came, like Mark Rothko, who painted his Seagram murals in the former gymnasium. Fellow abstract artists James Brooks and Michael Goldberg (his 'Bowery Days' painting, at left) moved in too, as did poet John Giorno. Andy Warhol held parties there. Allan Ginsberg and Roy Lichtenstein spent time at 222 as well. It was William S. Burroughs (right, with Joe Strummer inside 222 Bowery in 1980) who dubbed the building the Bunker. ..."
Ephemeral New York
‘Don’t Wait For Anything’: Dinner With John Giorno, and the Ghost of Burroughs
Inside William Burroughs's Bowery Apartment
John Giorno’s Half-Century on the Bowery
NY Times: Streetscapes/222 Bowery, Between Spring and Prince Streets; The 1885 Young Men's Institute, Now a Loft Co-op
YouTube: 222 Bowery