TRAILING A BROOKLYN SNEAK THIEF (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? ******************************************************************************************************************************** (From The Brooklyn Daily Union of Thursday, 25 June 1885.) “Two Jimmies and a Lot of Skeleton Keys and Lock Picks in His Possession – After Surveying the Residence of the Superintendent of Police He Goes Elsewhere and is Caught at Work. ” A few days ago a sneak thief, who got into a house in Hart street, was seen by a woman living on the opposite side of the street when he was leaving. She furnished Captain McLaughlin with a description of the man, which was subsequently given to Detectives Kelly and Druhan, of the Gates avenue station. Yesterday afternoon Kelly and Druhan left the station together and on looking up the street, not 200 feet away, saw a man who answered the description in every particular. The man was near Marcy avenue, and the detectives got out of the way until he passed them, and then followed in his footsteps. He went up Madison street, then to Tompkins avenue, Putnam avenue and finally to Bedford. The detectives by jumping on cars and running in and out of stores had become separated, but Kelly kept the man in sight, and did not let him get far away from him. The man went up Bedford avenue, out of the Ninth and […]
SHE MASQUERADED IN MALE ATTIRE (1894)
******************************************************************************************************************************** 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? ******************************************************************************************************************************** Poor Mrs. Emily Lund. She was not prone to wearing men’s clothing – at least not in public. But the night in 1894 that she did dress so, she was arrested and tossed in the slammer. Officer Michael Quinn of the Hamilton Avenue police station arrested Lund, on Van Brunt, in Red Hook (or “South Brooklyn”) near William. The 55-year-old domestic had been discovered there attired “in a pair of trousers, a vest and a long mackintosh.” THE NIGHT IN JAIL After spending the night in jail, she was arraigned in the Butler street police court the next day. Her husband, who could not bring himself to even show his face, had his mother appear in his place. She brought “an outfit of women’s clothing” for his wife. When “Emily could make no coherent reply to Justice Tighe’s questions as to why she masqueraded in male attire,” Mrs. Lund’s mother-in-law told the court that her daughter-in-law’s “mind was affected.” POSTSCRIPT: “WHAT HAPPENED TO EMILY?” OR “THE POWER OF PUBLIC SHAMING” Whether that was the truth or Emily’s mother-in-law simply found the explanation convenient and a good cover up of the actual truth, it is not known. What we can guess, though, is that the Lund family was probably the butt of […]
CALVIN COOLIDGE & THE BUNNY HUG (1922)
******************************************************************************************************************************** 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? ******************************************************************************************************************************** Vice-President Calvin Coolidge came to the Eastern section of Stuyvesant Heights one night late in 1922 to stump for the local Republican senator ahead of the mid-term elections. And in so doing, he would wind up in a nite club known for its bawdy dancing and raids on its illegal booze sales. It was the country’s first “working girl’s model dance hall,” The Arcadia. Dedicated specifically, at the time it was built in 1912, to “proper” dances for working girls, the hall – located at the corner of Halsey Street and Saratoga Avenue, across the street from Saratoga Park – had been supported by proponents who had lobbied successfully for anti-tango legislation, designed to outlaw “the turkey trot and other sensational dances.” For several years, the hall was a chaste facility which forbid “bunny-hugging” and tangoing, and kept a number of dance monitors on the dance floor to enforce these rules. You broke them once and you were kicked out for good – never allowed to return to the popular dance spot. Ten years later, though, it was the era of Prohibition, and the hall’s reputation had sunken somewhat in the estimation of its neighbors. Being the largest dance hall in the area, though, Vice President Calvin Coolidge would use it […]
REDEMPTION COMES FOR A BOY FIREBUG (1913)
******************************************************************************************************************************** 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? ******************************************************************************************************************************** (Ed.’s Note: A few weeks ago we received a letter from out of the blue. The writer claimed something fantastic – something astounding. It was a coincidence that spawned a story which gave life to an incredible – but true – tale. A story that we had written in a Brownstone Detectives blog several months earlier had recently popped up in this gentleman’s Google search about his great-grandfather. His great-grandfather, though, was no ordinary Brooklynite. For months in 1899 he had set fires in the houses – and fear in the hearts – of the Brooklynites of the Eastern District. He had also set the city to talk about, theorize on, and fabricate what had been causing the fires and where they would blaze next. The story you will read lays out the very particulars and the characters involved in the case. It is written by a particularly credible and relevant source of the information, information that was uncovered through some keen and dedicated detective work. For the gumshoe detective work behind this piece of crime investigation was performed by a man who only last year came to learn of this fantastic and amazing tale – fantastic because it was about his family, and amazing because no one in his family […]
A HEART FROM BED-STUY’S GIANTESS (1898)
******************************************************************************************************************************** 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 history of Bedford-Stuyvesant embraces many giants. There is Jackie Robinson, Jackie Gleason, and Chris Rock, just to name a few. Bedford-Stuyvesant, though, probably claims only one giantess. It most certainly claims only one murdering giantess – and, no doubt, claims the first murdering giantess to be put to death in the electric chair. Martha Place, who lived for a time in a brick townhouse at 598 Hancock Street, was that giantess. She stood 6 foot 7 inches tall and – around Valentine’s Day of 1898 – had become the talk of Stuyvesant Heights. But her popularity was not due to her loving, endearing ways. Quite the opposite. It was because she had committed such a brutal murder that year that the State of New York considered, for the first time, putting a woman to death in their new-fangled electric chair. The electric chair had been adopted by the State of New York just ten years previous. And in the decade to follow, just 25 men had been executed with it. This would be the first time, though, that “Old Sparky” would snuff out the life of a woman. Indeed most people could not believe it was about to happen. A jealous and volatile woman, Martha had had the “temper of […]
TIMEWARP TUESDAY! DEAN ST. (1905 v. 2014)
******************************************************************************************************************************** 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 late 1904/early 1905, people living on Dean Street, from Third to Fifth avenues, and on Fifth Avenue, from Dean Street to Flatbush Avenue, were “complaining bitterly of the condition of the streets, which have been torn up for a number of months. “The sidewalks are covered with dirt and rubbish and traffic is delayed seriously.” Pictured is the intersection at Dean Street and 4th Avenue – in 1905 and in 2014. Can you spot the differences between the two pictures? Follow @BrownstoneDetec Share ———————————————————————————————————————– The Brownstone Detectives Brownstone Detectives is an historic property research agency. Our mission is to document and save the histories of our clients’ homes. From our research, we produce our celebrated House History Books and House History Reports. Contact us today to begin discovering the history of your home.
