SELLING WHISKEY TO SOLDIERS (1918)
******************************************************************************************************************************** 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? ******************************************************************************************************************************** “Until a few weeks ago the neat, frame dwelling at 228 Seventy-second street, Bay Ridge, displaying a sign reading “Dressmakers” in the parlor window did not attract more than a passing notice. Then, to the wonderment of its neighbors, sailors and soldiers began to be seen entering and leaving the house. Last night Detective Thomas McQuillen, Thomas Gray and Patrick O’Brien of the Fifteenth Inspection District visited the house disguised as sailors. They arrested Miss Crow for selling liquor to soldiers. On that charge she was arraigned today before Federal Commissioner McGoldrick and on the request of Federal District Attorney France bail was fixed at $500. 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.
DESIGNING A BETTER BROWNSTONE (1888)
******************************************************************************************************************************** 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? ******************************************************************************************************************************** Current owners of brownstones know the time and cost investment necessary to renovating the ancient structures. After 125 years or so of constant use and abuse, it is understandable that, like with humans, things tend to sag, break, and otherwise, go out of date. Thus their constant renovations and redesigns. But did you know that our brownstones have been undergoing renovations – since they were built? At No. 278 Lafayette Avenue, an Italianate brownstone in the Clinton Hill section of Brooklyn, one such renovation – likely the rowhouse’s very first – took place in 1888, just 20 years after the construction of the building. While the redesigned was feted at the time, the owner’s name would go down in infamy… AN INFAMOUS OWNER OF AN OLD BROWNSTONE In 1904, an excursion steamship called the General Slocum sank in New York City’s East River. The craft had been chartered to carry members of the St. Mark’s Evangelical Church (a German-American community in Manhattan) to a church picnic when it foundered. According to Ship Ablaze, a book written about the disaster by author Edward T. O’Donnell, of the 1,342 people on board – mostly women and children – 1,021 drowned. The disaster decimated an entire section of New York City and caused the […]
