THE SINGING DOG OF LINCOLN PLACE (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? ******************************************************************************************************************************** Nothing makes front page news like the ridiculous or the sublime. Just over 100 years ago, the stage was certainly given over to the ridiculous. That year – 1915 – produced the first-ever crooning canine. And “Bunny,” the French bulldog was its name- or, rather, was it “Gaby,” the French bulldog – but, perhaps, it was “Bunny”? This confusion, it seemed, was the apex upon which would spin the entire ever-dizzying melodrama concerning the ownership of said dog – and to obscure matters even slightly further, there was a total of three individuals who seemed to be quite certain that each was the master to this now-famous dog. The contest, thus, was set, the curtains prepared to be drawn, and the public waited impatiently to review every detail of the salacious tragedy in an effort to determine the eventual players of the parts – in particular, who would emerge before the footlights in the precious and coveted melodramatic role of supporting actress to Bunny (or Gaby), the singing dog. And the newspapers covered it all, down to its last partially accurate detail. SETTING THE STAGE The Bunny-Gaby trial was certain to provide some good pieces for the newspapers for at least a week as the case weaved its way through the […]
SNIDELY WHIPLASH IN THE BRONX (1921)
******************************************************************************************************************************** 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 1921, a “picture actor” by the name of Paul W. Panzer had gone broke. Panzer, recently flush with cash, had filed a “voluntary petition in bankruptcy” for liabilities totaling approximately $2,500. The debts appeared to be to a number of sources – a loan to a recently formed Long Beach production company of which Panzer was a trustee, money loaned to him and several other “film people” (possibly also to the same production company), as well as, amongst others, a loan that was endorsed by two very well-known and successful actors of the time, Sheldon Lewis and King Baggot (Baggot, an international movie star, was referred to – at various times – as “King of the Movies,” “The Most Photographed Man in the World” and “The Man Whose Face Is As Familiar As The Man In The Moon”). In the petition, Panzer, gave his address as “2257 Walton avenue,” where he rented a 2-story and basement rowhouse and, according to the 1920 Federal Census, lived there with his wife, their 8-year-old daughter, and their 6-year-old son. Panzer’s bankruptcy was certainly a low-point for the actor who rose to fame just half a decade earlier as the infamous villain of the smash 1914 serial silent film, The Perils of Pauline, a […]
DITCHING YOUR HOME’S OUTDATED GAS (1916)
******************************************************************************************************************************** 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? ******************************************************************************************************************************** Every winter, old house owners hear the same old conversations that they heard the winter previous: “I’m thinking about making the switch from oil to gas.” “O, man, you’re going to love it. We did it and it saved us a ton on energy last winter.” “But it’s so expensive.” “But so worth it – you’ll see.” Back in the 1910s, though, no one was converting TO gas – they were converting AWAY from it. NO HOUSE TOO OLD TO BE ELECTRIFIED There is an irony to a 1916 ad which claims that no home was “too old to be electrified.” It begs the question: “How old is too old?” Did people believe that only new homes could be electrified? Did they think that if theirs had not been wired for electricity when it was built that it could not be electrified after the fact? Or maybe they just thought that the house would not be standing long enough for the owner to get any enjoyment out of getting it wired. All good questions. Perhaps they lead to misconceptions that the Edison Electric Illuminating Company of Brooklyn (a forerunner to “ConEd”) was trying to correct – so that they could sell more homeowners their services. WHEN WERE HOUSES ELECTRIFED? If your […]
AUNT CAR vs. THE IMMIGRATION ACT OF 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 the process of writing a House History Book, we research the history of a home’s owners. While researching one particular brownstone, we discovered that – soon after purchasing her brownstone in the 1950s – the Federal Department of Justice issued a warrant for one owner’s arrest and deportation. Sadly, this was not a rare event in Bedford-Stuyvesant at the time.) JAMES GILL MEETS “AUNT CAR” It was probably at some point after James Henry Gill, a mechanic from Trinidad, had registered for the Selective Service in 1942 that he met Caroline Beatrice McLean. McLean, a former schoolmarm from Barbados was then working as a garment worker and living with her sister in an apartment in Harlem. The exact date, time and place of the encounter is lost to the ages. What we do know, however, is that once they did meet they made a great match. Eventually, the couple would take the “A” Train – soon to become famous by way of Duke Ellington’s song – to Bedford-Stuyvesant. Once in Bedford-Stuyvesant, they moved into a brownstone at No. 9 Arlington Place, close to Bedford Avenue. MOVING TO MACON STREET A few years later, on 15 May of 1951, James and Caroline purchased 738 Macon Street from the former owners, the […]
“IT BURNED WELL” (1885)
******************************************************************************************************************************** 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? ******************************************************************************************************************************** Have you ever left something aboard a subway car and wondered what happened to it? The Metro Transit Authority has an entire “Lost & Found” room devoted to articles that were forgotten on their property. In it, they hold items discovered (or turned in) on their trains and buses for “three months to a maximum of three years, depending on the estimated value of the item.” If your item is not retrieved within this period of time, it is either auctioned or, if it is in poor condition, sent for disposal. Back in the late 19th century it appears that disposal was the only method employed. FOUND ON THE BRIDGE Well, apparently, the Brooklyn Bridge being so new in 1885, having so recently opened, and being so popular with the public, the accumulation of so many disparate articles on the “cars” was likely a phenomenon that had not presented itself before. As such, there was no program designed to locate the owners of the materiel left on trains and street-cars. It was simply summarily destroyed. According to a reporter for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle that year, a “great assortment of odds and ends which have been picked up on the bridge cars and promenade during the past year were cremated in […]
BOYS HIGH GRADUATING CLASS (1907)
The inset black & white photograph is from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle of Wed., 19 June 1907, showing a portrait of the 1907 graduating class of Boys High School – 112 years ago! It has been superimposed over a Google Maps image of the exact same location today. Follow @BrownstoneDetec ———————————————————————————————————————– The Brownstone Detectives The story you have just read was composed from extensive historical research conducted by The Brownstone Detectives. We perform in-depth investigations on the historic homes of our clients, and produce for them their very own House History Books. Our hardbound books contain an illustrated and colorful narrative timeline that will bring the history of any house to life. Contact us today to begin discovering the history of your home.
