“The Mills House” (160 Bleecker Street) seen on our Central Village Tour was built in 1896 as one of three gentlemen’s hotels created by Darious Ogden Mills. A wealthy philanthropist, Mills wanted to create a men’s hotel for the poor and the working class who would have otherwise stayed in a “flop house.”
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| Interior courtyard of The Mills House |
Each of the 1500 rooms had their own window; some faced the street and others faced an interior courtyard. There was a network of lounging rooms on the premises, meant to keep the men away from the pool halls and saloons at night. The charge to stay was 20 cents a night, which was half the price of other “flop houses”.
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| Mills House Restaurant menu from March 23, 1900 |
The cost for meals was 10-15 cents a day. The Mills House was so nice that not just the poor would stay. The 1900 census found clerks, cashiers, janitors, coachmen, laborers, porters, waiters, a doctor, a lawyer and a stockbroker. Allen Ginsberg stayed there in 1951; he paid $2.00 at day.
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| Add from the New York Post- December 2, 1970 |
“By the 1960s it came to be known as the Greenwich, and was a seedy hotel which was generally considered a source of crime and drug activity in the neighborhood,” (Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation).
In 1976 it was converted to luxury apartments and renamed the Atrium. – See more at:
