SPEEDING DRIVER, OVERTURNED CAR (1931)
******************************************************************************************************************************** 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? ******************************************************************************************************************************** The guilty one was evident. The accident was seen by at least 40 trolley riders, several automobile drivers, and a number of pedestrians, on Bergen Street near Bedford Avenue. It was around 8 p.m. on A Friday. A laundry truck had been motoring east on Bergen Street when its chauffeur, possibly eager for the weekend, attempted to pass a trolley car ahead of him that was going (too slow, likely for the chauffeur) in the same direction. As the laundry truck cleared this trolley car, however, its chauffeur became suddenly aware of a westbound trolley car bearing down on him in his direction. There was no time or space to change direction of the automobile and the two vehicles collided at a relatively high rate of speed. The force of the collision threw the truck into the path of the eastbound trolley that the chauffeur had just tried to pass, which also ended up striking the laundry truck, itself. It was unknown whether the laundry truck chauffeur was injured as he didn’t stick around long enough, fleeing the scene, according to the police, about as soon as his truck had found its final resting place. According to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, nine passengers on the two Bergen Street trolley cars were […]
THE PAINTED LADY OF SACKETT STREET (1958)
******************************************************************************************************************************** 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? ******************************************************************************************************************************** Houses as old as the historic brownstones of New York City have had a lot of time to experience change – change of ownership, change of status, as well as physical change. Much of that change often occurs on the inside of these buildings as their occupancy type changes. The most prevalent change of this type that occurs over time is the change of a property from a single family house to a mutiple dwelling or boarding house. Just outside the Cobble Hill Historic District, sits a much-altered brownstone on Sackett Street between Court and Clinton Streets, No. 275. Constructed pre-1855 as a one-family house it would experience many change over the years. Its original address was No. 160. Its original owner appears to have been William H Perry, a stock broker on Wall Street. By the 1860s, the Forsyth family lived in the Sackett Street rowhouse. Orlando Forsyth was a jeweler who, in the 1840s, had had a showroom on Fulton Street at No. 99. The house would begin taking boarders in the 1870s, continuing at least through most of the 20th century. THE LADY GETS A FACELIFT At face, however, the physical changes of No. 275 seem to be the most striking. While, in its original state, it resembled […]
THE HARLEM BROWNSTONE LOTTERY (1982)
******************************************************************************************************************************** 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? ******************************************************************************************************************************** In 1981, New York City felt it could no longer wait for gentrification to arrive in Harlem. The city’s finances were bleeding revenues through the decade-long erosion of its tax-paying property base. There were so many foreclosed brownstones on the city’s delinquency rolls that the earth beneath those structures had literally begun to lie fallow. And the City, as the owner of more than half of Harlem’s brownstone stock at this point (which included about 300 brownstones), was looking for ways to staunch the bleeding and bring its brownstone patients back from the brink of an eternal abyss. It was thus that, in an attempt to return that life’s blood to these lifeless patients, the City decided to find an innovative way to put owners back into Harlem’s glorious but abandoned and deteriorating brownstones. They held a lottery. THE HARLEM BROWNSTONE LOTTERY Settling upon a lottery as the means of distributing the old brownstones to middle-class Harlem families, the city’s housing department announced an application plan. The City would accept applications from (mostly) Harlem residents who had an annual income of at least $20,000. Each applicant would have a chance to buy – at a steep discount – one of 12 Harlem brownstones. City officials decided to fix the prices of […]
LIFE IN A HARLEM TOWNHOUSE (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. ******************************************************************************************************************************** No. 65 W. 119th St. in Harlem was owned by Alfred L. Silberstein, whose family brought him to the United States from German when he was three years old. He founded Griffon Cutlery Works. He lived in the brownstone with his wife, 5 children, 3 servants, & his mother-in-law, for roughly 20 years. The family brownstone, according to an ad from the period, was a “three story, high stoop basement dwelling, with extension, butler’s pantry, 10 rooms and two baths, handsomely finished; electric light and parquet floors.” Silberstein would advertise the townhouse for sale a few years later at a value of $20K (although he would take $16K). By 1920 Silberstein was living in one of the new apartment houses in Manhattan located at No. 600 West 157th Street. At this point, he was an importer of cutlery. Follow @BrownstoneDetec Share ———————————————————————————————————————– The Brownstone Detectives Brownstone Detectives is a property research agency. Our mission is to research, document, and save the histories of our clients’ historic properties. From this research, we produce our celebrated House History Books. Each book is fully cited, featuring detailed narratives and colorful graphics, and is designed to bring the history of any house to life. Contact us today to begin discovering the history of your home.
AN HISTORIC NOR’EASTER STRIKES NYC (1978)
******************************************************************************************************************************** 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? ******************************************************************************************************************************** We’ve all heard of the Great Blizzard of 1888. But almost 50 years ago, in 1978, which was 100 years after the historic snowstorm, New York City was struck by “one of the biggest snow storms ever to hit the New York area.” The Blizzard of ’78 formed on Sunday, February 5, 1978 and broke up on February 7. It was one of the rare times that a snowstorm closed the schools. Most suburban districts in the area close for snow several times each winter, but they rarely do in the city itself because of relatively easy access to subways, whose ability to run is not appreciably affected by moderate snowstorms. The New York Knicks were forced to postpone a basketball game for the first time ever, due to the airports being closed and the Portland Trail Blazers being unable to arrive in time. Many people were caught in the storm while driving, and many others were trapped in their homes and workplaces, with snow drifts of up to 15 feet, in some places blocking the exits. In many cases, those who had become ill or had been injured during the storm had to be taken to hospitals by snowmobile. Other people left their homes and went for help using cross-country […]
WHEN 100M TONS OF SNOW FELL ON NYC (1947)
******************************************************************************************************************************** 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? ******************************************************************************************************************************** We’ve all heard of the Great Blizzard of 1888. But in 1947, more than 99 million tons of snow fell on New York City in one day. Watch this 3-minute newsreel. Follow @BrownstoneDetec Share ———————————————————————————————————————– The Brownstone Detectives Brownstone Detectives is an historic property research agency. Our mission is to document and save the histories of our clients’ homes. From our research, we produce our celebrated House History Books and House History Reports. Contact us today to begin discovering the history of your home.
