THE FUR-MAN OF FULTON STREET (1896)
Fur was a big thing 100 years ago. The highest classes of women wore furs and those not as high a class wished to emulate them.
There were all types of furs – from lynx, to fox, to otter and seal – even mole, squirrel and Persian sheep!
James Cassidy not only sold the finest furs in the latest styles, but he also altered them as the styles changed, repaired them when they became damaged, and then refrigerated them in the summer when they were not in use.
After a fur was selected, altered, and sold, it also needed to be cared for. So an entire industry sprang up around their cold storage in the warmer months.
Cassidy used the latest in refrigeration techniques – an ammonia refrigerating machine – a freezing method which “far surpasses the old.”
With refrigeration at hand within the same building where the furs were sold, an employee of Cassidy’s would simply send a wagon around to their client’s door and pick up their furs, bringing them back to Cassidy to summer in his cold storage.
CASSIDY MOVES DOWN FULTON
In 1902, Although Cassidy continued to operate his store from this location, he sold his building for $107.500.
By 1904, Cassidy, Sr., had died. Having emigrated from Ireland in 1858, he had been the second furrier in all of the City of Brooklyn to establish a fur business there.
By 1907, though, Cassidy, Jr., was retiring from the furrier business. Later that year the building would begin to house Namm’s Department Store.
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The story you have just read was composed from extensive historical research conducted by The Brownstone Detectives. We perform in-depth investigations on the historic homes of our clients, and produce for them their very own House History Books. Our hardbound books contain an illustrated and colorful narrative timeline that will bring the history of any house to life. Contact us today to begin discovering the history of your home.
