hopefully, I'll be going to NYC in 2 weeks (I'll find out tomorrow night if I can get the time off or not)--since the person that I usually stay with has moved to Buffalo, I started poking around for hotels, hostels & recent crackdowns Bloomberg has initiated regarding folks that sleep on the subway.
I came across the following in a description of "Bowery's Whitehouse Hostel":
The hotel features four floors and over 200 comfortable accommodations with single and double room occupancy available. We boast the lowest rates in the city for private rooms in a very clean, safe environment, with prices starting at $28.00 per person. (Please keep in mind that while the rooms are private with locks and only you and members of your party have access, in the spirit of 'hostel' living, the ceilings are made of lattice work and sound does travel across the tops of the rooms).
Located on New York's famous Bowery, The Whitehouse was a well known 'Lodging House' providing accommodations to New York's working class close to 100 years ago. Today, the original 'old world' charm of the Whitehouse has been recaptured. However, the property has been ugraded for the modern-day traveler.
Each floor has shared, modern bath and shower facilities, and cozy air-conditioned rooms that range in size, accommodating 1 or 2 travelers per room. Rooms with Cable TV are available at time of check in for a small additonal fee. Our beds are all 'twin' size. We also have laundry facilities on the premises and a T.V. lounge with refrigerator and microwave. The cleanliness of our premises, along with your safety and security are our top priority and the Whitehouse provides one of the safest, most inexpensive operations in New York. So don't be fooled by our low price. We're certain you'll be pleased!!
----
my goodness, how things change.
I actually stayed at the Whitehouse a couple of years ago for a month & half or so when it was still "providing accomodations for New York's working class" (which is pretty much code for "flophouse")
for those who have not had the pleasure of staying in an actual, factual Bowery flophouse, or "transient hotels" (& I stayed in 3 or 4 for stretches from a couple of weeks to a couple of months--& one in Brooklyn) I recommend experiencing this bit of Americana before they similarly succumb to such "hostel takeovers" (har, har) (unless, of course, you are of the female gender--there's an iron-clad "no dames" rule)
the layout in all of them was pretty much identical: 9 bucks a night, cash up front--the shower is pretty much a communal nozzle down the hall, with privacy provided by the virtue of using it when nobody else is.
you can't much tell, but this a picture of self in the shower facilities of the Whitehouse, with a shirt on my head for some reason, (circa 1998):
the toilets may have been given a perfunctory squirt of Lysol in the past month, but probably not.
as far as the rooms themselves--the term "hutches" might be more appropriate--now, perhaps, covered by an elegant "lattice", but back then it was chickenwire & the "sounds that travelled" would most likely disturb an individual who wasn't rather drunk.
fortunately, I was.
the furnishings consisted of a bedstead & a mattress. (that is, a cushion on the bedstead--thus fulfilling the basic definition. it might also be defined as "a filthy wad of padding that might likely have a bit of Jackson Pollock's DNA nestled therein")
anyway, I'm sure it's much more jolly now. (I poked my head into the Whitehouse when I was in NYC a year ago or so--which sounds like the opening to an elaborate dirty joke, but it's not--& was surprised at how much had changed, & was pretty much the same--I'll probably stay there when I go back, just to see.)
anyway, more later, eh?
I came across the following in a description of "Bowery's Whitehouse Hostel":
The hotel features four floors and over 200 comfortable accommodations with single and double room occupancy available. We boast the lowest rates in the city for private rooms in a very clean, safe environment, with prices starting at $28.00 per person. (Please keep in mind that while the rooms are private with locks and only you and members of your party have access, in the spirit of 'hostel' living, the ceilings are made of lattice work and sound does travel across the tops of the rooms).
Located on New York's famous Bowery, The Whitehouse was a well known 'Lodging House' providing accommodations to New York's working class close to 100 years ago. Today, the original 'old world' charm of the Whitehouse has been recaptured. However, the property has been ugraded for the modern-day traveler.
Each floor has shared, modern bath and shower facilities, and cozy air-conditioned rooms that range in size, accommodating 1 or 2 travelers per room. Rooms with Cable TV are available at time of check in for a small additonal fee. Our beds are all 'twin' size. We also have laundry facilities on the premises and a T.V. lounge with refrigerator and microwave. The cleanliness of our premises, along with your safety and security are our top priority and the Whitehouse provides one of the safest, most inexpensive operations in New York. So don't be fooled by our low price. We're certain you'll be pleased!!
----
my goodness, how things change.
I actually stayed at the Whitehouse a couple of years ago for a month & half or so when it was still "providing accomodations for New York's working class" (which is pretty much code for "flophouse")
for those who have not had the pleasure of staying in an actual, factual Bowery flophouse, or "transient hotels" (& I stayed in 3 or 4 for stretches from a couple of weeks to a couple of months--& one in Brooklyn) I recommend experiencing this bit of Americana before they similarly succumb to such "hostel takeovers" (har, har) (unless, of course, you are of the female gender--there's an iron-clad "no dames" rule)
the layout in all of them was pretty much identical: 9 bucks a night, cash up front--the shower is pretty much a communal nozzle down the hall, with privacy provided by the virtue of using it when nobody else is.
you can't much tell, but this a picture of self in the shower facilities of the Whitehouse, with a shirt on my head for some reason, (circa 1998):
the toilets may have been given a perfunctory squirt of Lysol in the past month, but probably not.
as far as the rooms themselves--the term "hutches" might be more appropriate--now, perhaps, covered by an elegant "lattice", but back then it was chickenwire & the "sounds that travelled" would most likely disturb an individual who wasn't rather drunk.
fortunately, I was.
the furnishings consisted of a bedstead & a mattress. (that is, a cushion on the bedstead--thus fulfilling the basic definition. it might also be defined as "a filthy wad of padding that might likely have a bit of Jackson Pollock's DNA nestled therein")
anyway, I'm sure it's much more jolly now. (I poked my head into the Whitehouse when I was in NYC a year ago or so--which sounds like the opening to an elaborate dirty joke, but it's not--& was surprised at how much had changed, & was pretty much the same--I'll probably stay there when I go back, just to see.)
anyway, more later, eh?