“LUCKY” No. 13 POLHEMUS PLACE (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? ******************************************************************************************************************************** (From the Chicago Daily Tribune, Fri., 11 November 1904.) Ed.’s Note – If your house number was “13,” would you hang a rabbit’s foot on your door, cover up the unlucky number, change it? These were all suggestions by the Commissioner of the Street Numbering Bureau to Brooklyn citizen Henry Brooks Plumb when Plumb arrived in the commissioner’s office hoping to change the integer attached to his door – No. 13 Polhemus Place. ____________________________________________________________________________________ New York, Nov. 10. – [Special.] — The street numbering bureau of Brooklyn told Henry B. Plumb of 13 Polhemus place today that he could scratch the hoodoo off his front door. It gave him a neat slip of paper authorizing him in the name of the borough of Brooklyn to substitute a numerical mascot. He was told under the powers of the permit, that he could hang the left hind foot of a rabbit caught in a graveyard at midnight under the new number in case the hoodoo proved stubborn. Maybe Plumb can get a servant now. Mrs. Plumb is hopeful. There is an air of optimism and cheerfulness about the family in marked comparison to the gloom and depression of those bitter days when Bridget and Mary Ann and black Hannah and tow-headed Gretchen shuffled […]
