“THINGS GIRLS LIKE TO DO…” (1917)
******************************************************************************************************************************** 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 a kitchen where there is no sink, the substitute should be a steady table.” “Try to clean only as much each day as can be can be put back into habitable order by the time the men of the household come home.” “I cannot vouch for Plaster of Paris, but I can for corn meal and flour, for with it I once successfully cleaned a white kitten.” Such are some of the excepts of “Things Girls Like to Do,” a manual on domestic work for the young lady of 1917, which today is a window into the maintenance of a household 100 years in the past. The world of domesticity in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century was changing rapidly, as indoor plumbing came into being and electricity introduced into the home. And so the “women’s work” of the household necessitated convenient instruction for girls who would some day take on the sole responsibility of “keeping house.” “Things Girls Like to Do” was that little primer for that period. Of more interest today to those maintaining historic homes, it gives loads of specific insight into how today’s old houses were initially kept up. From the use of burnt pine ash for polishing copper, to the extensive use of calcimine […]
WERE THESE BROOKLYN’S FIRST CO-OPS? (1899)
******************************************************************************************************************************** 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? ******************************************************************************************************************************** Back in 1899, Bolton Hall, the son-in-law of lawyer and real estate investor, William H. Scott, convinced Scott to allow him to use some of his real estate units to experiment with a “novel co-operative idea.” “Mr. Hall’s idea was simply to let tenants share the profits of the property they occupied,” noted the New-York Tribune. “Previous to April, this year, Mr. Scott was the owner of houses at Nos. 231, 223, 225, 219, and 221 Reid-ave., Brooklyn. The property lies between Hancock st. and Jefferson ave., and consists of three single and two double houses.” Hall, who would spend his life working on behalf of the poor, had started the “back-to-the-land movement” in the United States at the time, which was a forerunner of the Green Thumb project and consisted of encouraging people to begin gardens on vacant lots. Hall noted that the tenants of the buildings eagerly entered the scheme and that during a 4-month period the plan was successful. Hall told the tenants that it was proposed to value the buildings at ten times their proper rent when full, which would be $8,000 each for the single houses and $14,000 for the double,” noted the New York Times, “and to reserve as Mr. Scott’s share 5 per cent. […]
THE “SPITE WALL” OF CALDERVILLE (1919)
******************************************************************************************************************************** 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 have all heard of the “spite house.” It is a type of building – constructed on an impossibly small piece of land – existing for a single purpose. That purpose? Spite. In 1919, Marcus Siegelman produced a variation on this theme. He built a spite “wall.” BAD WALLS MAKE BAD NEIGHBORS Sitting in his backyard one day, Siegelman watched as two holes began to appear through the brick wall at the end of his yard. That brick wall was the side of his neighbor’s house, and those holes were about 15 feet up from ground level. Small at first, they eventually grew to the shapes of a couple of large rectangles. Siegelman immediately had his suspicions, but he waited to see what would happen. Slowly, after they were made perfectly squared, into the new openings were installed a couple of sash windows. Siegelman, who lived at No. 1627 10th Avenue in what was known at the time as Calderville (but is referred to today as Windsor Terrace), was now suddenly at war with his neighbor, E. L. Morris, a former policeman who lived at No. 192 Windsor Place (the house behind his with the new windows). For Morris now had a perfect view into Siegelman’s backyard – and his home. […]
A RAILROAD FOR PARK SLOPE’S 8TH ST. (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? ******************************************************************************************************************************** Few of today’s Park Slope residents know about them. In early February of 1904, however, they suddenly appeared on Eighth Street between Prospect Park West and Eighth Avenue, an industrial omen in a white shoe neighborhood. These dark and foreign objects were a set of iron railroad tracks that had been – overnight – inserted coarsely into a place where they did not belong – residential suburbia. The block where these alien metals and wood had descended, had just barely been settled recently with homes (and even more recently with families). It had just seen itself partially developed with a row of eight upscale apartment houses on the north side of the street and 12 two-story & basement limestone houses on its south. With the recent spate of construction, there were – at the time the tracks appeared – a mere four families that had purchased “handsome houses” on the block, which they had taken possession of at “fancy prices.” Now, those with an interest on the block were showing “great alarm.” With the appearance of the tracks, residents fully expected their properties to be “ruined in value,” causing them to begin considering selling them at a discount and to ignominiously leaving the neighborhood. The builder of the limestones, Sen. William […]
BOYS WILL BE “PONY BOYS” (1915)
******************************************************************************************************************************** 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 the early part of the last century, a Brooklyn school boy could put on a dress with nary a thought of it. Cross-dressing – for one night of the year, at least – became so popular with some prep school boys, that they looked forward to it eagerly every year, along with their admirers. This cross-dressing showcase was known as the “Pony Ballet,” the most popular part of the fundraiser put on by Poly Prep which was performed by the pre-pubescent boys of the Poly Prep Country Day School. At the Brooklyn Academy of Music, where the spectacle was celebrated annually, it was not only acceptable for every 10-year-old boy to wear a dress – it was expected. “In 1915’s show the ballet was composed of a dozen youngsters from the lower grades of the school made up as girls. They made the liveliest and most attractive collection of ‘ponies’ seen on the stage in a long time.” A few years later, in 1917, such songs as “I’m a Regular Man Down Here,” and “Hello, Mr. Dream Man,” were sung with bravado in the show “Three Queens.” But the cake must have been taken by the Poly Prep boys in 1914 when the “girls” came out in “doll baby dresses […]
HAS YOUR BROKER BEEN FOOLING YOU? (1905)
******************************************************************************************************************************** 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 1905, No. 838 Flatbush Avenue was only a few years old. But it was already on its third tenant. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle opened its Flatbush office at No. 838 (today, No. 834) that year, forcing Weber & Koch realtors out the door. The building had been constructed by Captain Henry Hoffman. Hoffman, referred to as captain from his sailing days, was the sole surviving member of the crew of the schooner America which had brought the America‘s Cup to the United states in 1851. In business life, Hoffman was a big man in New York society, having been a millionaire coal merchant, though, in 1905, and reputedly (according to many sources – amongst them the Daily Eagle) the wealthiest man in Flatbush at the time. Hoffman had originally expected to use the site for the real estate dealings he dabbled in. Soon after building the structure, however, Hoffman would sell and move on. The new owners would be the borough’s premiere newspaper, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, which would maintained the office as a branch of the newspaper up until around the late 1920s. In 1918, however, part of the building was taken up by another organization. The Flatbush Chamber of Commerce established itself there. All this from an unassuming […]
