THE “IMPOSING” VIEW FROM OCEAN HILL (1848)
******************************************************************************************************************************** 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? ******************************************************************************************************************************** Before there was Ocean Hill—the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood—there was Ocean Hill—the section of Green-Wood Cemetery. Whether one influenced the other is lost to the ages. What is clear, however, is that both locations got their names from a geographical point from which a body of water could clearly be viewed. “At this point, now known as Ocean Hill,” described a contributor (whose pen-name, revealingly, was Investment) in an edition of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle published just a few years before the Civil War began, “we have reached the highest point on the avenue (Fulton Street) and the most commanding elevation of ground in the city; and which, for grandeur, beauty and variety of its scenery, cannot be surpassed. “The ocean view,” Investment continued, “is especially grand and imposing.” Investment, whose contribution to the paper existed as a thinly veiled promotional piece for Brooklyn, was describing the “advance in the value of Brooklyn real estate.” From Fulton Ferry he advanced down Fulton Avenue to “gather such information as will enable the public to form an intelligent estimate as to the present and prospective value of property on and near this great thoroughfare.” “At this point Fulton avenue is distant but a few hundred feet from Atlantic avenue on the south, and Broadway on […]
A JUNGLE MARCHED THRU BED-STUY (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? ******************************************************************************************************************************** The grey mastodons pounded threateningly down Howard Avenue past the gloomy darkness of Saratoga Square Park. Lumbering slowly around the corner onto Macon Street, they let forth a great trumpeting roar, swaying rhythmically to and fro. As their long, great shadows danced menacingly on the canopy of the park’s trees, cast vaguely by the faint light of the omnipresent red and green flickering colored torches, they presented a terrifying and foreign spectacle. Hundreds of small boys darted in and out of the gathering throngs to view the intimidating beasts, instilling in the air a noticeably heightened excitement which spread further and further down the block, as the presence of these creatures became known. As these majestic monsters moved towards 738 Macon Street, they let out their crushing roar which now could be felt more by the bones than by the ears. A great moan of excited joy leapt, in a synchronized response, from the lips of the visually excited crowd as each and every person lining the Macon Street parade route viewed the very first elephants. As the grey forms, dabbled in red and green light, diminished in size on their trek towards Ralph Avenue, they were replaced by the great humpbacked dromedaries with their inartful steps and studied looks of […]
BOERUM HILL TIMEWARP! (1922 vs. 2018)
******************************************************************************************************************************** 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? ******************************************************************************************************************************** It’s always a blast to compare old photographs of Brooklyn streets with what is there now. Often the old buildings, street lamps, and flagstone sidewalks are long gone, but sometimes you are discover a treat that makes the journey worthwhile. With a little help from the internet it’s easy to make these comparisons and then to even bring the past back to life. Using the Old NYC app, which allows you to search a map of the city to find locations where old New York City pictures were taken (and are stored at the New York Public Library’s Digital Collections), you can search for any address within the five boroughs. With some luck you might find an actual picture of the building or location you are looking for. With our case, we were looking for street addresses on Atlantic Avenue. Searching the database, we found 336 Atlantic Avenue. The picture was described as “336 Atlantic Ave., south side, west of Hoyt Street,” and this particular photograph had a little more information than you usually get on this site – information on the building’s conveyance from one owner to the next, likely around 1922. The caption at the library’s site further notes that the photograph showed “a home bought by Mrs. Pruize […]
FOOLS AMONGST THE PENNY HUNTERS (1895)
******************************************************************************************************************************** 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? ******************************************************************************************************************************** April Fool’s jokes have a long and colorful tradition of the instigation of harmless pranks on hapless “fools.” They have often been played with great success on their unsuspecting targets at least since the 16th century. In 1895, one April Fool’s joke brought about not only the public mockery of one Brooklyn businessman – but also a great loss of some “small change.” THERE’S GOLD IN THEM THAR PENNIES! On April Fool’s Day in 1895, a Bath Beach business man, John Brodie of Bay Seventeenth street let his greed get the best of him. On that fateful day a “stranger entered Brodie’s collecting agency office” and “let out the secret that all the 1892 cents would be recalled and that their value had suddenly jumped to 8 cents each.” The reason, it was averred, was that “by mistake some gold had become mixed up in the copper.” Brodie saw a chance to make a great profit, but only if he acted swiftly and quietly. He, thus, “sent his office boy around to the different banks and secured fully $50 worth of coppers. Not satisfied with this he visited various stores at Bath Beach and gathered in all the pennies he could.” But Brodie could not keep the secret of the path […]
THE BABY FARM OF UTICA AVENUE (1890)
******************************************************************************************************************************** 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 red flags began to go up slowly – one by one – as babies began to die. After Annie Smith, 1 month and 14 days old, it was wee Cora Tanner, just 7 days old. With two infant deaths being reported within the same month from a private residence at 126 Utica Avenue, Inspector Corcoran of the Department of Health was detailed to look into the matter. THE INSPECTION Arriving at 126 Utica Avenue, Inspector Corcoran discovered a “two story frame structure in which are available for maternity and nursery purposes four small rooms and an attic apartment.” Tending this facility, according to the Brooklyn Standard Union, was a Mrs. Emily V. Wilson, her daughter, and a nurse. Onsite, though, was also one baby and five women “patients.” Corcoran asked Mrs. Wilson to show her license, upon which request “she produced two documents given her by the Department of Health.” The first, dated 12 September 1886, granted permission to board four children at 100 Utica avenue, while the other bearing the date of 18 June 1888, permitted her to keep six children at 795 Herkimer street. She had no license for 126 Utica Avenue. At this point the inspector asked to view the house’s register, “which the law requires of […]
THE NYC “CORONAVIRUS” OF 1918 (1918)
******************************************************************************************************************************** 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. ******************************************************************************************************************************** In 1918, the world was facing a pandemic. Influenza was on the march and it was killing more people than World War I ever could. Soldiers were dying before they could reach the front. School children were losing their lives at alarming rates. WHERE DID INFLUENZA COME FROM? According to History.com, the term influenza became commonplace to describe the disease, at least in Britain, in the mid-1700s. At the time, it was thought that the influence of the cold (influenza di freddo), along with astrological influences or the conjunction of stars and planets (influenza di stelle), caused the disease. In 1892, Dr. Richard Pfeiffer isolated an unknown bacterium from the sputum of his sickest flu patients, and he concluded that the bacteria caused influenza. He called it Pfeiffer’s bacillus, or Haemophilus influenzae. Scientists later discovered that H. influenzae causes many types of infections—including pneumonia and meningitis—but not influenza. Researchers finally isolated the virus that causes flu from pigs in 1931, and from humans in 1933. THE SPANISH FLU IN NYC The first “modern” flu pandemic occurred in 1889 in Russia, and its sometimes known as the “Russian flu.” It reached the American continent just 70 days after it began and ultimately affected approximately 40 percent of the world’s population. The flu pandemic of 1918 is sometimes known as the […]
