McGurk's Suicide Hall

You are standing near the site of two hundred ninety-five Bowery, once home to an establishment known as McGurk's Suicide Hall. During the late nineteenth century, this building served as a grim epicenter of local misery. John McGurk, the proprietor, operated a saloon and brothel here that became infamous for the extreme desperation of the sex workers who frequented it. As these women reached the absolute lowest point of their lives, many chose to end their suffering on the premises, often by consuming carbolic acid or leaping from the building's upper stories.