Sunshine Hotel

The Sunshine Hotel is a flophouse (single room occupancy hotel) at 245 Bowery in Manhattan, New York City. It received media attention in the late 1990s and early 2000s as a result of numerous radio and film documentaries about the hotel. In recent decades, The Sunshine Hotel has been reduced in size with parts being converted into restaurant and office space.

Bowery entrance

Description

Originally, the Sunshine Hotel occupied the internally connected upper floors of 241, 243 and 245 Bowery, labeled Sunshine, Lakewood and Annex respectively. The lobby was located on the second floor of 241 Bowery. The Lakewood had 45 cubicles, the Sunshine 100, and the Annex 36[1] with three barracks-like dormitories. The walkup is now at 245 Bowery.

Each cubicle is 4 ft × 6 ft (1.2 m × 1.8 m) on the sides and 7 ft (2.1 m) tall[2] with a chicken-wire ceiling.[3][4] The only amenities are a bed, a locker and a light-bulb.

When the hotel opened in the 1920s, guests could stay for 10 cents (equivalent to $1.53 in 2019) a night. By 1998, its rates were $10 a night.[5] The Sunshine no longer accepts new occupants.[6]

History

241 Bowery was originally an office for the New York and Harlem Rail Company in the 1830s. In the late 1870s it was the location of the saloon and brothel Sultan Divin, and in 1910 the Fleabag saloon took over.[7] By the early 1920s, the address was a pickle factory.

In 1922 Frank Mazzara, a broom-maker, followed his brother-in-law Mike Gatto of the Andrews Hotel, into the lodging business by purchasing the location and opening the Sunshine Hotel.[8][7][9] Mazzara reworked the façade in the styles of Art Deco and Commercial. This façade had pale yellow bricks, limestone pediments and panels, and plaques with wreath and torch emblems.

Mazarra's son Carl took over the Sunshine Hotel in 1946.[8] In 1949, the New York branch of the NAACP investigated Bowery hotels and found that the Sunshine Hotel was discriminating against black people by refusing them service.[10] In 1970 James Adair, the hotel manager at the time, refused to sell cigarettes to a man and was then shot to death on the hotel's second floor.[11] Carl retired in 1984 and sold the hotel to the Bari family, who were in the restaurant supply business, who used part of the hotel to store their business's pizza ovens.[4][8]

By 1998, the Sunshine Hotel accommodated about 125 residents.[5] The flophouse received attention after being featured in an NPR segment created by David Isay. In 2001 Michael Dominic released an award-winning documentary Sunshine Hotel. Both Isay's and Dominic's documentaries were narrated by the 16-year manager of the Sunshine Hotel, Nathan Smith, who died of cancer in 2002.[3]

In August 2004 Anton Bari, the owner of the Sunshine Hotel, started buying out residents and refusing new guests. At this time, the flophouse had about 44 guests.[1] By 2008, the Sunshine Hotel had fewer than 30 residents.

On June 30, 2008, the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development ruled that the hotel's was harassing tenants to force them out. The city government gave the hotel three more years before developers could use the location.[12]

The Sunshine Hotel lost its plywood signage in 2011 as workers converted the first floor of one of the hotel's three buildings into the Bowery Diner.[13] In August 2014, Roseann Carone of Harlen Sales started converting the building's two upper floors into offices. Meanwhile, the 30 to 40 Sunshine Hotel residents stayed in neighboring 239 Bowery.[14] In June 2017, Carone reapplied for a "Certificate of No Harassment" to protect the hotel's lawful residents from harassment.[15]

Media coverage and art

Radio

David Isay and Stacy Abramson spent a year creating an All Things Considered segment on the Sunshine Hotel which aired on September 18, 1998.[16] Isay edited 70 hours of raw tape to less than half an hour.[17] Isay and Abramson then collaborated with photographer Harvey Wang to write a book about life in various Bowery flophouses, including the Sunshine Hotel.[2][8]:147

The program won a Prix Italia award in 1999 under the factual documentary category.[18] The documentary was included in an episode of the radio show 99% Invisible which aired on August 4, 2015.[5]

Miles Maguire compared the documentary's narrative to Dante's Inferno, where the hotel manager Nathan Smith takes the role of Virgil as tour guide and narrator; and the guests represent various personality disorders.[17]

2000 film

Phil Bertelsen created a 30-minute documentary film titled The Sunshine in 2000 which follows some residents and workers for the Sunshine Hotel.[19] It won awards for best short documentary at the 2000 Woodstock Film Festival[20] and at the 2000 Shorts International Film Festival.[21] Bertelsen was given the prize for "Best African-American Student Filmmaker" at the 2002 DGA East Coast Student Film Awards for his work on this film.[22]

2001 film

The filmmaker Michael Dominic heard David Isay's NPR segment and became interested in the making a documentary about the flophouse. Released in 2001, it was his first documentary.[23] It was released on DVD in 2012.[24]

Andrea Chase praised the film's cinematography and structure, writing that the film "offers a unsparing look at what it means to hit bottom and stay there."[25] Josh Ralke also gave the film a positive review, praising how it captures the lives of the hotel's residents.[26]

Art

Around July 2004, the artist Julianne Swartz created an art installation titled "Can You Hear Me?" that used a yellow PVC tube to connect the second floor of the Sunshine Hotel to a platform on the sidewalk. The tube had mirrors which pedestrians could look through and interact with Sunshine Hotel residents.[27][28] This project was part of an exhibition designed to explore the diversity of the Bowery and was done in anticipation of the future opening of the New Museum. Sunshine Hotel residents had mixed feelings regarding the project; some enjoyed the interactions with outsiders while others were uninterested.[29]

On August 19, 2016, the Philadelphia songwriters Sam Cook-Parrott and Michael Cantor released the album The Afterglows with the first track titled "Angels In The Sunshine Hotel". This song was inspired by the story of a man who moved to New York to study philosophy, but who ultimately went broke and became a Sunshine Hotel tenant.[30][31]

References
  1. Aguirre, Abby (August 16, 2004). "GOODBYE SUNSHINE: BOWERY TO LOSE LONGTIME SRO". City Limits Weekly. Retrieved June 14, 2016.
  2. Richardson, Lynda (October 9, 2000). "A Skid Row's Time Drifts Away". The New York Times. Retrieved June 18, 2016.
  3. Martin, Douglas (June 1, 2002). "Nathan Smith, 65, a Glib Man of the Bowery". The New York Times. Retrieved June 15, 2016.
  4. "On the Bowery, A Flophouse's Last Stand". Washington Post. July 15, 2001. Retrieved June 24, 2016.
  5. "The Sunshine Hotel". 99% Invisible. Retrieved June 12, 2016.
  6. "Goodbye Sunshine: Bowery to lose longtime SRO". City Limits.
  7. Ferrara, Eric (May 6, 2011). The Bowery: A History of Grit, Graft and Grandeur. The History Press. pp. 96–98. ISBN 978-1-61423-004-5.
  8. Isay, David; Abramson, Stacy; Wang, Harvey (2000). Flophouse: Life on the Bowery. New York: Random House. p. 105. ISBN 9780375503221.
  9. Isay, David. Flophouse: Life on the Bowery.
  10. "What Next?: Now There's Jimcro in Bowery Flop Houses". The New York Age. New York, NY. October 1, 1949. p. 8. Retrieved June 17, 2016.
  11. "Man Slays Manager Of Bowery Hotel". The Troy Record. Troy, NY. December 26, 1970. p. 2. Retrieved June 17, 2016.
  12. Goldenberg, Sally (July 21, 2008). "3 MORE YEARS OF SUNSHINE FOR BOWERY BUMS". New York Post. Retrieved June 11, 2016.
  13. Elie (July 1, 2011). "The Sunshine Hotel Loses Its Signage". Bowery Boogie. Retrieved June 11, 2016.
  14. Schram, Lauren Elkies (August 25, 2014). "Sun Goes Down on One of Three Sunshine Flophouse Buildings". Commercial Observer. Retrieved June 11, 2016.
  15. "Sunshine Hotel Conversion Plans Revived as Ownership Again Seeks 'Certificate of No Harassment'". Bowery Boogie. July 10, 2017. Retrieved July 18, 2017.
  16. Hinckley, David (September 18, 1998). "'Sunshine' Illuminates Bowery's Sad Flophouses". NY Daily News. Retrieved June 18, 2016.
  17. Maguire, Miles (January 2011). "Literary Journalism as a Key to Reporting's Richest Prize". Literary Journalism Studies: 65–68.
  18. "Prix Italia Winners 1999–2003" (PDF). Prix Italia. Retrieved June 11, 2016.
  19. "The Sunshine". Sweetspot Pictures. Retrieved June 17, 2016.
  20. "MAVERICK AWARD WINNERS NAMED: Woodstock Film Festival Announces Maverick Award Recipients". 2000 Award Winners. September 24, 2000. Retrieved June 17, 2016.
  21. "Full Frame Documentary Shorts". DVD Verdict. Retrieved June 18, 2016.
  22. "DGA Announces Winners of 8th Annual East Coast Student Filmmakers Award". July 22, 2002. Retrieved June 17, 2016.
  23. Aufdereheide, Patricia. "Interview with Michael Dominic" (PDF). Center for Media & Social Impact. Retrieved June 16, 2016.
  24. "[Updated] Q-and-A with Michael Dominic, director of 'Sunshine Hotel'". EV Grieve. July 19, 2012. Retrieved June 15, 2016.
  25. Chase, Andrea. "SUNSHINE HOTEL". Killer Movie Reviews. Retrieved June 16, 2016.
  26. Ralske, Josh. "Sunshine Hotel (2001) — Review". AllMovie. Retrieved June 16, 2016.
  27. Swartz, Julianne. "Can You Hear Me?, 2004". Retrieved June 16, 2016.
  28. Vandam, Jeff (July 25, 2004). "NEW YORK AT WORK; The City's Other Restaurant Row". The New York Times. Retrieved June 14, 2016.
  29. Blumberg, Deborah Lynn (August 11–17, 2004). "Through a tube starkly: Connecting on the Bowery". The Villager. Community Media. 74 (15). Retrieved June 16, 2016.
  30. Lorusso, Marissa (June 27, 2016). "Songs We Love: The Afterglows, 'Angels In The Sunshine Hotel'". NPR. Retrieved September 1, 2016.
  31. Snapes, Laura (August 24, 2016). "The Afterglows "Angels in the Sunshine Hotel"". Pitchfork. Retrieved July 22, 2018.
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