CSI: MURDER ON THE PARK SLOPE? (1893)
******************************************************************************************************************************** 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? ******************************************************************************************************************************** When a badly decomposed body was discovered in the basement of a tony Park Slope brownstone, two of Brooklyn’s best detectives were put on the case. THE SETTING “Thomas Dempsey a retired merchant, who lives with his young wife and mother in law in a handsome brown stone house at 248 Garfield place, near Eighth avenue, rushed into the Bergen street police station in a fluster late yesterday afternoon,” reported the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, declaring “that he had just found his servant Edith lying dead in the basement of the laundry.” Dempsey was in an anxious state, the paper noted, observing that he wanted “the body removed without delay as it was badly decomposed and also to have the fullest investigation possible made by the police.” THE WEEK BEFORE THE DISCOVERY Mr. Dempsey, with his wife and mother in law, departed for a vacation trip to Asbury Park on 9 August 1893. They left the house and a pet pug dog in charge of Edith Moe, “a middle aged genteel looking woman” of 35, who was “of a very nervous disposition and who seemed dreadfully afraid to let her friends know that she was living out.” Mr. Dempsey’s mother-in-law, it was learned, had hired Edith, so Mr. Dempsey did not know […]
THE LOST ART OF MOVING HOUSES (1900)
******************************************************************************************************************************** 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? ******************************************************************************************************************************** An article in the 28 March 1900 edition of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle caught our eye the other day. It detailed an old practice of moving houses, and it took place in a time when the economics were such that their transport to another lot made more fiscal sense than tearing them down wholesale. In this story, however, the time it took to move this particular house took a toll on the neighboring residents. And, at one point, they gathered to tear the house down, themselves… THE HOUSE IN THE STREET The story took place in the early part of 1900 in Flatbush at the corner of Flatbush Avenue and Linden Boulevard. The subject was a frame structure that was being moved from that corner, although not quickly enough for local residents who protested the house’s temporary location on Linden Boulevard. And by “on Linden Boulevard,” we mean on the actual roadway itself. “A frame building stands in the middle of Linden boulevard, at its junction with Flatbush avenue. The building bears the sign of Vanderveer & Williamson, real estate agents,” the reporter started his story. Vanderveer & Williamson, we discovered – through combing the newspaper’s archives – were Adrian Vanderveer and Adrian N. Williamson, who had, by this point, had […]
THE ANATOMY OF A RACE RIOT (1862)
******************************************************************************************************************************** Brownstone Detectives investigates the history of its clients’ homes. The story you are about to read was composed from research conducted in the course of one of those investigations. ******************************************************************************************************************************** “Yesterday afternoon, one of the most disgraceful riots, which has ever happened in this city, took place…” So began the Brooklyn Daily Eagle‘s lead article about an “anti-Negro” riot that had taken place the previous day in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn. “…which, but for the timely appearance of the police, aided by some citizens, might have resulted in a most fearful tragedy.” HOW THE RIOT STARTED Days before the riot, though, “two (black) men who work in the rozin factory at the foot of Sedgewick Street were returning home from their work and stopped at Grady’s liquor store, in the neighborhood of the factories, to take a drink.” When a white man went to enter the establishment, he asked the “colored men” to move out of the way. When they refused, the spark that would light the kindling appeared. Of course, resentments and ill feelings had been brewing for some time, and this event, apparently, provided the “justification” for the backlash that was to come. After this minor liquor store incident – all through the night and into the next morning – various sorts of wild stories began to circulate and rumors to spread, including, unsurprisingly, unfounded accounts about “struck at the negroes with their clubs.”.” Then, when the morning arrived upon which the riot was incited, […]
FIRE, FUN & FIASCOES ON THE 4th (1887)
******************************************************************************************************************************** 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 lot of accidents happen on the 4th of July. While it has been a day of celebration for Americans since its inception, certain citizens have tended to go a bit too far with their fireworks and other dangerous weapons. Back in 1887, a few days after Independence Day, a listing of the damages occurring and casualties effected on that date appeared in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle – once the authorities had had the time to assess the collective destruction. “Pistols and pyrotechnics of every kind were used with absolute impunity by even mere children,” the paper noted, “and the wonder is that more accidents did no occur.” The following list reflects a number of police blotters and lays out the accidents occurring primarily in the Eastern District (Williamsburg and Bushwick areas, and parts of Bed-Stuy). It is partial, but it will 1) boggle your mind, and 2) make you laugh. FIRE CRACKERS AS ASSAULT WEAPONS 8:30 – A boy whose identity could not be discovered threw a firecracker at the peanut stand outside the frame building at 21 Grand street and set it on fire. The building, which was owned and occupied by Sauer Brothers as a saloon, was damaged to the amount of $500 before the flames were extinguished. […]
THE COP, THE VIRUS, & THE PARROT (1930)
******************************************************************************************************************************** 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 night in January of 1930, a recent NYPD Academy graduate, Officer Charles Suss, was patrolling his beat at Macon Street and Howard Avenue. “Six nights he has tramped his frosty beat in the cold hours between midnight and 8 a.m.,” the New York Times reported. “Six nights he has tramped his beat aimlessly, hoping for something to happen.” But then, as now, rookie cops got the worst time shifts. Also, Macon and Howard, according to the Times, was “a far removed section of Brooklyn” that was “apparently devoid of crimes. “There was only silence and a little rain.” But at 5 o’clock on that frosty January morning “Suss and his still brightly varnished stick swung down Howard Avenue. “The patrolman, as usual, was brooding on crime,” the Times claimed. “He had just decided that the girl he was rescuing would have light hair and blue eyes. In another moment they would be in the Marriage License Bureau at the Municipal Building.” But then came a “cry from the middle of Saratoga Park.” “Hello, Jake,” it cried. “Help! Help!” “Suss and his club streamed into the thin bushes of the park, guided by the racket and the calls for help. Suss remembered his undergraduate days and what he had been told […]
THE PEDIGREE OF “BOERUM’S HILL” (1776)
******************************************************************************************************************************** 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? ******************************************************************************************************************************** What must it be like to have your identity co-opted for the purposes of obtaining personal credit? Though we cannot ask this question of Farmer Boerum – he’s been dead for more than 200 years – we can guess at what the old Dutch farmer would say. The name, Boerum Hill, which was commandeered from the colonial farm owned by the Boerum Family, in point of fact had its origination with an actual hill that existed on his farm – located in today’s Carroll Gardens/Gowanus – that was then locally known as “Boerum’s Hill” (then “Fort Boerum” during the Revolutionary War). Confused? Sure. Sooooooo…it’s a little like saying, “I named my dog ‘Spot’s Wart’ – after the wart on my dog, Spot.” OK. Well….maybe not exactly. But close. WHAT WAS BOERUM’S HILL? Boerum’s Hill, first and foremost was a natural topographical feature – an elevation or rise – on the Boerum Farm. We know little of its geographic specifications (height, width, slope, &c.) other than that. Located in today’s Gowanus/Carroll Gardens area, it was, additionally, a strategic military position known, during the Battle of Brooklyn, as Fort Box (and later, during the War of 1812, as Fort Fireman). So, we have a good indication, at least, that the hill was of […]
