The Bowery is a reconstruction of a typical bowery in an early Mormon settlement. The Bowery was generally the first public building in a new settlement. Here the people gathered for meetings and social events until more permanent structures could be built. The original Bowery in the Salt Lake Valley was built in one day, July 31, 1847, by the Mormon Battalion. It was made of wood posts, a hardened dirt floor, and a roof of thatched brush and willow boughs.