WOMAN SURVIVES B’KLYN BRIDGE JUMP! (1900)
******************************************************************************************************************************** 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? ******************************************************************************************************************************** Yellow Journalism was in its heyday in 1900, and Joseph Pulitzer’s “World” was right up there at the top of the whole heap of it. This is an example of the hype that existed back then, drawing readers into a version of the world that was part real and part made-up. The subject of this splashy front page story, Marie Rosalie Dinse, came to be the second woman to jump from the Brooklyn Bridge. Dinse, amazingly, survived this “mad leap,” surprising the physicians who attended her. While the New York World reporter who wrote this story included a number of facts in his story, he also took liberties to suppose a number of many more, weaving an account that was sure to enthrall readers and – more importantly – sell newspapers: “As she crossed the bridge the river looked so restful,” read the World article. “There was peace there. “She sought it.” The truth was, simply, she lost money is a boarding-house speculation. After the fall, she was taken to an asylum for treatment. 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 […]
“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 […]
TIMEWARP TUESDAY! FULTON ST. FERRY TERMINAL (1900 v. 2014)
“Fulton Street, north side, at Water Street, showing the old Fulton Street Ferry Terminal and the Brooklyn Bridge tower. This is also a street car line terminal.” So reads the back of this ca. 1900 photograph. At that time, the ferries would land at the foot of Fulton Street and the streetcars – then horse-drawn – would take passengers to various parts of the borough. Here is a picture of this spot today: And the picture from 1900: Follow @BrownstoneDetec ———————————————————————————————————————– The Brownstone Detectives This story was composed from research performed by The Brownstone Detectives. Let us do an in-depth investigation of your house and its former owners and produce your very own House History Book. Your hardbound coffee table book will include an illustrated and colorful narrative timeline that will bring the history of your house to life. Contact us today.
