A CHILD SNATCHING ON CLASSON (1875)
******************************************************************************************************************************** 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? ******************************************************************************************************************************** He was “large.” He was “repulsive looking.” And he wanted to steal a child. And so, when Michael Kelly, of No. 22 Franklin Avenue, heard the joyous amusements of a number of young children upon a stoop at No. 208 Classon Avenue, he was resigned that he should have one. Ascending to where they were, he seized little Josephine Carter, aged 3 years, and “despite her cries of alarm, began a hasty retreat.” As he reached the bottom step and turned to flee down the walkway, little Josephine’s head knocked violently against the iron railing, causing her to cry all the more loudly. The children who remained on the stoop, “their playmate having been removed so from their midst, were all terrified, and began to cry in concert.” This crying attracted the attention of a Mrs. Hartley, who resided next door at No. 206 Classon. She, “supposing there had been an accident of some sort, hastened to the street just in time to see Kelly running off with the little girl.” THE CHASE “Very pluckily she followed him for nearly half a block and finally overtook him. Demanding the instant release of the child, she wanted to know why he was carrying it away.” Kelly, though, pretended to be deaf and […]
A TREE FALLS ON PROSPECT PLACE (1901)
******************************************************************************************************************************** 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? ******************************************************************************************************************************** On the night of July 11, 1901, Brooklyn experienced a “Wind Storm” that knocked down a number of trees. One of those fallen trees crossed Prospect Place between 5th and 6th Avenues. One man “barely escaped the fallen tree, with the outer limbs grazing his body.” The storm must not have done much damage, though, as this picture – in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle – was the only reference to it. Just a little over a week earlier, though, trees were falling faster than Brooklyn home prices in 2009, when a wind storm killed two men at Coney Island and caused extensive damage at Parkville (a suburb then just west of Kensington). “Great trees, four and five feet in circumference, were uprooted and hurled across fences and into yards where gardens were the pride of the household,” noted the Eagle. “When the strong winds swept across the open fields between Coney Island avenue and the Ocean Parkway between Franklin avenue and Avenue D,” the Eagle continued, “it carried away with it four frame cottages being erected by the Morris Construction Company.” When the skies had finally cleared, the locals would view the distruction – the suburb was “full of wreckage. Every street was full of fallen trees…” Follow @BrownstoneDetec Share ———————————————————————————————————————– […]
