EXHUMING THE GARDENER OF BED-STUY (1914)
******************************************************************************************************************************** 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? ******************************************************************************************************************************** “All stories, if continued far enough, end in death, and he is no true-story teller who would keep that from you.” — ERNEST HEMINGWAY, Death in the Afternoon The dead are everywhere amongst us. When we think of the past, we ponder the lives of those poor souls who once lived, breathed air, told tales, worked, and dreamed dreams. They can no longer tell tales, as the saying goes, but those resourceful ones amongst us can often piece together their forgotten stories and, with them, weave the colorful and ornate narratives of their lives. When we start researching a house and its former occupants, we never know what we’re going to find. Sometimes we unearth a truly bountiful draw – pictures of owners, documentation on the building, and the stories about what had happened at that house – they seem to start popping up all over the place. With other houses, though, it can seem as if the place had never been occupied. But we always find something. No matter how small. And these are the clues that become our figurative footprints. We’re detectives, you know. 😉 THE GARDENER OF 1155 BEDFORD AVENUE When we began snooping around 1155 Bedford Avenue, on the trail of a particular Charles Morse, we found […]
