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Bowery Ballroom Used to Be a Shoe Store in NYC

This 1920s building on the Bowery had many lives before it became a legendary NYC music venue in the 1990s!

Bowery Ballroom Used to Be a Shoe Store in NYC
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Guitar riffs, loud cheers, and thumping bass sounds have been emanating from 6 Delancey Street since 1998 when the Beaux Arts building transformed into the Bowery Ballroom, a legendary music venue on Manhattan's Lower East Side. But before acts like Patti Smith, Bruce Springsteen, and Metallica rocked the stage, the inside of this 1920s structure was very quiet.

Constructed in 1929, just weeks before the stock market crash, the building was home to Tree-Mark Shoes. The shoe retailer stuck around through the 1930s, occupying multiple storefronts from 6-8 Delancey Street. You can still see the engraved "Tree-Mark Shoes" sign at the top of the building, though former Tree-Mark signs above the windows have been replaced with "Bowery Ballroom."

After the shoe store vacated the property, the building is said to have remained vacant through World War II. The space later held other retail businesses including a jewelry store, but fell into disrepair during the economic downturn of the 1970s. In the 1990s, the building transformed into a music venue that earned a reputation for great sound and intimate crowds. It was crowned #1 best club in America by Rolling Stone magazine in 2013.

On a visit to the Bowery Ballroom for a concert in 2011, Untapped New York saw pieces of the remaining foundation of a three-story brick theater that existed before the 1929 structure was built on this site. Both inside and out, the building maintains much of its original 1920s features, from the arched central window with ornate iron details to the vaulted ceiling above the mezzanine-level bar (which you can see in this interior photo from 1930).

Next, check out more quirky histories of NYC music venues!

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