SNOWBALLS TO BULLETS IN BROOKLYN (1888)
As the snow piled up during the Blizzard of 1888, Brooklynites began to experience countless fights. Snowball fights, that is. Most were lighthearted and fun, romps in the snow bringing joy and relief from the endless shoveling and the stress of everyday life with the white stuff. But sometimes these snowball fights turned ugly, exposing the more unsavory side of Brooklynites. They showed how quickly a snowball fight could evolve from a joyful game into mayhem-filled terror. Two cases, in particular, made the pages of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle during the week of the historic blizzard.Yesterday’s story involved a razor. Today’s involves a gun. THE GUN Seventeen-year-old James Fallon of Flatbush, Brooklyn, a “very quiet lad” who was working two jobs at the Hunter’s Point docks (as a plumbers’ apprentice and as a telegraph operator), fell in with a youth “of his own age,” one Joseph Woods, on the way to work two days after the Blizzard of ’88 struck. At the dock, the two boys noticed a “great pile of snow” – likely carted there by city contractors who were attempting to clear the streets. The two “for some time pelted each other with snowballs,” having great fun together. At one point, though, James managed to strike Joseph in the mouth with a snowball. This particular snowball “made him angry, whereupon he drew a revolver” and firing it at James, “struck him over the left eye.” James fell in the snow. Joseph ran away. THE TREK Most 17-year-old’s shot […]
A BEER CALLED MÜNCH (1904)
******************************************************************************************************************************** Brownstone Detectives investigates the history of our clients’ homes. The story you are about to read was composed from research conducted in the course of one of those investigations. Do you know the history of YOUR house? ******************************************************************************************************************************** One might wonder if a beer called “Münch” had at one time been on the receiving end of an unfortunate and slightly counter-intuitive moniker. Today, product names are usually selected based upon their abilities to stir some positive emotions – within the minds of the consumers – about their products. “Munch,” though, was not always an informal term describing a way of eating. More than 100 years ago, it was also a German name that was connected in the minds of many Brooklynites with a very satisfying “table beer.” THE MUNCH BREWERY The Ferdinand Münch Brewery, located at 277-299 Vernon Avenue from the late-1870s through to about 1920, when Prohibition spelled its end, satisfied the palates of Brooklyn, as a “family” beer, for more than 40 years. Housed originally within a building of old stone construction, Ferdinand Münch replaced the brewery building with a structure of brownstone and brick shortly after he purchased the property. Münch, though, would pass within the decade and leave his brewery to his sons, one of whom was William Münch. WILLIAM MUNCH AND HIS BROADWAY BUILDING In 1904, Sigmund Eisenbach, of 227 Gates Avenue, built a 4-story office building on the corner of Myrtle and Broadway, selling it to Ferdinand’s eldest son, William Münch, who had […]
The Campfire Girl & The Marxist, Pt. II (1915)
(And now, the thrilling conclusion of – “The Campfire Girl & The Marxist.”) THE ESCAPE PLAN The escape plan seemed so simple in its design that it was later wondered how it ever worked. Although the overall scheme of hopping freight trains headed west was plotted intimately with maps and the help of encyclopedias, the actual disguise plans and methods for eluding authorities was rather, well, sophomoric. But it worked. It seems that Max went down to a store on Fulton street, and there bought for Viola a pair of brown knickerbockers, a Norfolk jacket and a gray cap with a peak on it like a bicycle cap. Viola would look like a boy bicyclist. “He just guessed at the measurements,” said Bostick, adding with a knowing grin, “and I must say Max was a fine guesser.” When Max, Viola, and Andrew arrived at the Kowenhoven station of the Long Island Rail Road – for Andrew was an accomplice in their escape – Max made a suggestion that must have rankled Viola – that, to aid in their escape, she could roll her hair up and hide it under her cap. Viola, however, was having none of that. If she was going to be a boy, she was going to go the distance. She stated firmly that she wanted her curly locks shorn completely. So, there, under the archway of a railroad bridge, Max snipped off six “curls.” He kept three, bound in a handkerchief, and gave three of them […]
The Campfire Girl & The Marxist (1915)
******************************************************************************************************************************** Brownstone Detectives investigates the history of our clients’ homes. The story you are about to read was composed from research conducted in the course of one of those investigations. Do you know the history of YOUR house? ******************************************************************************************************************************** If nature were a fair goddess, she would have made some girls boys and some boys girls. Although most teenagers often go into their young adulthood trying to determine just who they are, some know it instinctively and early on from experiences that leave indelible etchings upon their souls. Viola Stevens was just such a girl. Although she was new to Hancock Street – and a bit serious for her years – she had initially proved herself to be very much like all of the other girls on the block. She loved nature, had boy “friends,” was a Campfire Girl, and had even, after some time, became a Woodcraft Girl. In other words, she spent nearly all of her 15 years doing “girl” things. In 1915, though, all of that changed when she did a very “boy” thing, which terrified her mother and excited the entire borough. She ran away – with a socialist. A MOTHER’S POINT OF VIEW No, of course. The “running away” bit was the actual catastrophe as far as her mother was concerned. The fact that the boy was a socialist simply added some salt to the wound. Any mother would tell you that her daughter is her world and that she is pure as the driven […]
BANNING NEW YORK’S ASSAULT WEAPONS (1926)
******************************************************************************************************************************** Brownstone Detectives investigates the history of our clients’ homes. The story you are about to read was composed from research conducted in the course of one of those investigations. Do you know the history of YOUR house? ******************************************************************************************************************************** Back during the Roaring ’20s, there was an assault weapon on every corner – or at least that was how it seemed. New York began to see the widespread use during these years of “Tommy” guns (machine guns), and sawed-off shotguns, which were freely available and useful in committing the crimes that joined the Mafia and Prohibition at the hip. A manager in the gun department of “one of the most conservative and long-established sporting goods stores” in New York City, Schoverling, Daly & Gales, noted that these types of weapons were sold without the necessity of a permit. “Although any well-established and reliable concern would take the same precautions that we do to see that these weapons do not get into the wrong hands, there are hundreds of fly-by-night small stores throughout the city where these things are sold without a permit and without any precaution except to get the price,” noted this gun salesman. Officials of the time were clearly aiming at protecting the public with their proposed weapons bans of the period, especially where it involved “inter-gang warring.” “The light Thompson sub-automatic…can be had in a number of stores on payment of the price – $500,” said the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. “A citizen who wishes to have a […]
THE SECOND HUMILIATION OF WARREN (1960)
A number of New York City Parks Department statues are having their stolen swords replaced reported a DNAInfo story. The statues, most of which have had their their swords stolen (bayonets, and glasses, in some instances) during times of high crime, are now deemed worthy of replicas being cast. The Parks Department worries less now about the replicas being stolen themselves. I’ve often noticed one such statue in particular – the Kemble Warren statue at the Grand Army Plaza. First of all, why was it there? What had Warren, an engineer, done that could have been so critical to the war effort? Had he been a critical part of the attack at any actual battle? I figured that, as an engineer, he had – more likely – prepared a defense. But was that enough to receive a statue? KEMBLE WARREN – A HUMILIATION Gouverneur Kemble Warren, the engineer for whom the statue at the Grand Army Plaza had been cast and dedicated, had been known for his heroism at Gettysburg. By the time that General Philip Sheridan had begun his “burning of the Shenandoah Valley,” though, Warren had been castigated by, what Sheridan referred to as, a critical slowness in arriving to a certain battle. Because of this, Warren had been relived of duty by the general (an action supported by General Grant, at the time) and assigned to another, less critical, theater of battle. The humiliation of the relief of command, though, had already had its effect. After some […]
