Changing New York; Blossom Restaurant
The window of the Blossom Restaurant, occupying the ground floor, and Jimmy's Barber Shop, occupying the basement, of the Boston Hotel, a flophouse at 103-105 Bowery.
Museum of the City of New York103 Bowery ca. 1935
The Blossom Restaurant occupied the ground floor and Jimmy’s Barber Shop the basement of the Boston Hotel, a flophouse on the Bowery. As a child, Al Smith, governor of New York from 1919 to 1928, lived next door at 105 Bowery when it was a lodging house. Abbott made three exposures, one without figures, one with a ragged man perusing the restaurant menu, and a third showing the barber Jimmy and his assistant waiting for customers. The third version is the most emotionally resonant: the restlessness of these hapless people exemplifies the mood of the Depression. Like so many other buildings on the Bowery today, this one is occupied by a restaurant supply wholesaler.
Museum of the City of New York