THE HERO OF THE HALSEY STREET FIRE (1911)
******************************************************************************************************************************** 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? ******************************************************************************************************************************** Late in 1911, on a brisk early November morning, a fire broke out in the ground floor store of a 4-story corner apartment building across the street from Saratoga Square Park. It quickly spread, engulfing the entire building. Smoke pouring out of the store on the ground floor of 801 Halsey Street was first seen by a streetcar motorman, William Coffey, who, thinking quickly, began to clang his streetcar gong to arouse the sleeping inhabitants of the building. Coffey and his conductor, along with their six passengers, descended from the car and rushed to the building to do what they could do to assist in evacuating the residents. The fire had apparently started on the ground floor on the Halsey side of the building in a stationery store run by Wolf Bialik. Next door was a grocery store operated by Ernest Seemeyer. The flames then quickly “shot up the dumb waiter shaft to the roof, mushrooming out on each floor.” DETECTIVE O’HARA TO THE RESCUE Across the street, at No. 98 Howard Avenue, a 37-year-old police detective, Irving A. O’Hara, upon hearing the street car gong, had begun dressing quickly and rushed across the street to assist. By this point, the three families living in the building had made it out […]
A CARIBBEAN HISTORY OF BED-STUY (2014)
“There is more serendipity in heaven and earth, Horatio, than is dreamt of in your philosophy.” Although that is not an exact quote from Shakespeare, it is close enough for my purposes. It very adequately lends a certain je-ne-sais-quoi to a chance experience I had a few years ago here in Bedford-Stuyvesant. FINDING AUNT CAR It was 2014, I found a posting on a genealogical site by a woman searching for information about a relative of hers named Caroline Gill. Since, at that time, I had been researching the lineage of my home – a 120-year-old brownstone in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn – I knew that one of the previous owners of my house went by that name, so my interest was piqued. I responded to the APB-like message and gave what information I had, hoping for an exchange. As it turned out, that poster, Stacey Maupin Torres, had more information about Caroline than I had ever found. This she began to share with me in what can only be described as pages of beautifully descriptive prose. I could tell that there was love in her words and I consumed them with an avid interest. In one of her emails, though, she casually mentioned some information that I was sure that she didn’t know I already possessed. She told me that her “Aunt Car” had lived in a beautiful old brownstone at 738 Macon Street in Brooklyn – the house my husband and I had been living in for […]
DR. DOLITTLE OF BROOKLYN HEIGHTS (1910)
******************************************************************************************************************************** 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? ******************************************************************************************************************************** All neighborhoods have their odd birds. In the early part of the 20th century, Brooklyn Heights had Harold S. Burnett. Burnett, known throughout Brooklyn as a keeper and handler of exotic animals, birds, and reptiles, was often in the newspapers, either because of his escapades with his animals, or because of the other one involving the divorce of his wife. And Burnett had quite the collection of animals – from boa constrictors, to lizards, to game cocks, to fighting dogs and bucking broncos. There didn’t seem to be an animal that Burnett would not consider handling. THE DAY THE BEAR APPEARED One day, Burnett confessed to a friend his desire to own a bear. So, when that friend returned from a hunting trip, he sent a bruin to Burnett as a gift. “He lives in Flatbush and bagged it on a hunting trip,” Burnett explained how he came by the animal. “But the bear was so large they had to take the doors off the hinges to get it in the back yard and it was such a fierce brute that I couldn’t let it get out of its cage.” “SO I DECIDED TO HAVE IT SHOT.” At some point after having the animal in his backyard for short period, Burnett […]
HAPPY “SURGE PRICING” NEW YEAR! (1867)
******************************************************************************************************************************** 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? ******************************************************************************************************************************** A blinding snowstorm welcomed in the New Year in the City of Brooklyn in 1867. From “daylight and until early noon” the snow was “falling, falling fast,” as “thousands of juveniles commenced the year industriously, by earning their New Year’s gifts, in sweeping and shoveling the snow off the sidewalks. ” In spite of the snowfall, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported that “there never were so many open houses and never so many callers.” SURGE PRICING IN 1867 “Callers, as a general thing, didn’t mind the snow much, while to the keepers of livery stables, the appearance of the morning air, filled with its myriad snow flakes, became a vision, exceeding in its richness the fabled mines of Golconda.” In a word, these taxi drivers were seeing dollar signs within the Brooklyn snowfall. And the harder the snow fell, the more money their sleighs would be bringing in. “They knew that the light wagons for which they had been paid in advance, would not be taken out, and for sleighs they could charge such prices as they chose.” Like a modern-day taxi service – upon which rested no fixed rates – these 19th century taxi hacks would begin to set new prices on their services, determining – based upon the wiles […]
BROOKLYN’S “GREAT WHITE HURRICANE” (1888)
“Brooklyn awoke this morning to find itself in the hands of the blizzard.” So read the morning edition of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle almost 130 years ago on Monday, 12 March 1888, about the record snowstorm that, over a day-and-a-half period, dropped up to three feet of snow on the city, produced sustained winds of 40 miles per hours, and created snowdrifts in some places in excess of 50 feet! Nearly all transportation was shut down completely and many Brooklynites were confined to their homes for up to a week. While the city slept the rain that had rendered last evening slightly unpleasant had turned to snow, the wind had increased to a tempest and all life was driven from the streets. Street cars were unable to proceed. The horses were detached and taken to the nearest place of shelter. The inmates of the cars saw the huge drifts of snow pile up above the window ledges, heard the shrieks of the wires above their heads and did not leave the cars unless an open house was very near at hand. It was about 1 o’clock when the storm became furious and it raged for ten hours with undiminished violence. Those who ventured out during the morning were treated to a view of the city unparalleled in its history. During the entire morning there was little concerted effort, except along the principle business part of Fulton Street, to open traffic or carry on any business. Half the city felt that […]
GIVING BATHS TO BROWNSVILLE (1905)
New York City has always been known for its progressiveness. Its mayors and city council seemed always to be trying to improve conditions for the masses – either out of a true passion to do good – or for the votes. In the 1890s, it was all about relieving its citizens from the oppressive heatwaves that were hitting the city by passing out free ice to all who would stand in line for it. At the turn of the century, it would be all about cleanliness and health. THE RISE OF THE BATHS According to 1908’s Modern Baths and Bath Houses, “out of 255,000 inhabitants of tenements…only 306 had bathtubs in the houses where they lived.” This, apparently, was appalling to the better classes which felt that the lower classes had to be scrubbed clean, thereby giving rise to the reference to Saturdays being the bath day. And so the bath house movement began, which was all about improving “the public health, dignity and upward mobility for those living in tenements.” In 1905, Pitkin Avenue’s public baths were opened. According to a blog post by Cory Seamer of Brooklyn Relics, the building used for Pitkin Avenue’s Public Bath is now used for something else: “Designed by architect A.S. Headman, the Pitkin Avenue Public Bath was built in 1903 at a cost of $84,456….the building’s façade has been heavily modified. The ground floor has been partially demolished and retro fitted with a glass storefront, the cornice has been removed and the […]
