THE BOMBING OF BROOKLYN HEIGHTS (1892)
******************************************************************************************************************************** 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 was just past 1 a.m. on a cool Saturday morning in the tony Columbia Heights section of Brooklyn. The police reserves of the Second Precinct, under the able leadership of Sergeant Joseph Carrougher, would soon be arriving on the scene. Carrougher’s desk sergeant had just awoken him out of a deep sleep at the Fulton Street police station. The sergeant had looked at him gravely in the dark of the room. “Somebody exploded a dynamite bomb on Willow Street.” “GROTESQUELY DRESSED, THE RESULT OF A HURRIED TOILET” When Carrougher arrived on the scene, he found Officer Seymour, “a portion of whose post was the scene of the explosion,” along with “a crowd of citizens” busily disturbing the crime scene. It was not too troublesome, however, having this crowd of citizens, “grotesquely dressed, the result of a hurried toilet,” tromping about the evidence. So long as they did not take anything that would assist in apprehending the guilty party. But many at the scene that night had begun amusing themselves “by digging out the fine white powder of the cobblestone with their penknives,” taking away samples. Sgt. Carrougher had seen it all in his 25 loyal years of dedication to the force. And while there were a number of clues that […]
A STREETCAR JUMPS ON SACKETT STREET (1929)
******************************************************************************************************************************** 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? ******************************************************************************************************************************** If you bought a house that a streetcar had once crashed into – would you know about it? When researching the history of a client’s house, these are the stories that literally MAKE a House History Book. They are the stories that make the biggest splash – but in this case, a CRASH… But to the story… Back in the day, streetcars used to crash into buildings from time to time. The motormen’s reasons for this were usually that the car jumped the track while it was making a turn onto another street or avenue. In this instance, though, the motorman could only say that the streetcar “jumped,” but it does not appear that he was able to explain why – because he was operating the car in a straight line uphill on Sackett Street. While doing some research on a client’s home recently I saw this picture and I thought, “I didn’t even know that Sackett had a streetcar line!” Apparently, though, the line ran up and down the street back when it went both ways. The street must have been amazingly congested with these things going both ways! One day, in the Fall of 1929, though, that streetcar – starting on its run up the “slope” – literally “jumped” […]
A PROHIBITION WRECK ON ORANGE ST (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? ******************************************************************************************************************************** “Tearing through Orange st. with the throttle wide open, in the early hours this morning, a big limousine of expensive make crashed into an electric light pole at the foot of the street, ricocheted against a fire hydrant which it completely demolished, continued on its course and crashed through an eight-foot picket fence.” A flirtation at a dance, a stolen vehicle, a crash, the removal of a set of license plates, and a hasty departure from the scene of the accident was further described in the 12 December 1922 newspaper article. “CRASH WAKENS HEIGHTS” “A blood-stained hand pushed open the door of the limousine. Two gory men stepped out,” wrote the reporter. The two men “then turned and assisted a woman out of the car. They climbed over the wall to the street and stood huddled in a little group as if debating what to do.” After a few minutes of dazed waiting, the three crash victims walked quickly up Orange Street. Then, a few minutes later, one of the men was observed returning and making “a vain effort to wrench the rear license plate from the car.” All that he succeeded in doing, though, was leaving “a number of bloody but well-defined fingerprints on the license number.” A WOMAN APPEARS […]
ROASTING CORK IN A “HEIGHTS” FIRE (1907)
The Jehovah’s Witness complex in Downtown Brooklyn was once the scene of a roaring early morning 4-alarm fire that threatened to destroy the vast warehouse district that existed there in 1907. Sitting along the waterfront at the location of the fire – on both Columbia Heights and Furman Street – was a cork company, a coffee roasting factory, and an ice plant. SAVING THE WAREHOUSES It is not known where exactly within the complex the fire broke out, but it was determined by many of the residents of the district that the aroma of burnt coffee and cork did not make for a attractive combination that morning. The “oily reek of cork” was in the smell of the smoke throughout the morning, while roasted coffee – roasted twice over – brought residents to realize which warehouses were caught within the conflagration. The buildings in the picture above sat on what is now the Jehovah’s Witness compound and comprised a number of private homes that were still existent within the old warehouse district. Among them was “a frame house of the old style sort, two stories in height, with a mansard roof for an attic.” And in that building Catherine O’Neill, 50, and her bedridden sister, Agnes O’Neill, 65, both former “schoolma’rms,” feared for their lives. SAVING THE SCHOOLMARMS Patrolman Keating, who sounded the alarm, grew concerned as their building was shrouded in black smoke. No one had seen the two women that morning, and he “feared that something had happened to them.” So, […]
THE GREENEST BLOCK IN BROOKLYN (1902)
******************************************************************************************************************************** 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? ******************************************************************************************************************************** As the judging for this year’s “Greenest Block in Brooklyn” award heads into its final round, we bring you a history of the concept of beautifying and greening neighborhoods in the borough of Brooklyn. A BRIEF HISTORY OF BLOCK BEAUTIFICATION IN BROOKLYN Before the Botanic Garden arrived on the scene with its “Greenest Block in Brooklyn” initiative in the 1990s, there was “Block Beautiful.” A number of private Brooklyn citizens, wishing to bring about the greening of their neighborhood, initiated an organized effort to stimulate an active interest in its residents utilizing their green thumbs to good effect. This earliest organized “block beautification” project began somewhat simultaneously in 1902 on two separate streets and section of the borough – Henry Street (in Brooklyn Heights) and on Quincy Street (in the Bedford Section). Led by Miss Zella Milhau of 291 Henry Street, the effort was called “Block Beautiful,” and was an initiative to “green” the block upon which she and her family lived, with the hope that this effort would be replicated throughout the city. Milhau, an artist and active member of the Municipal Art Society and the Fine Arts Club of Manhattan, who lived in the Columbia Heights section on Henry Street between Joralemon and State streets, originated the idea and got […]
