TRAPPED IN A BILLYBURG FREEZER (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? ******************************************************************************************************************************** If you stepped into a walk-in freezer and the door slammed shut on you – how long do you think you could hold out? In this day and age, such a scenario certainly plays itself out on the mental movie screen anytime we step into one. Such accidents happened enough that the freezer companies began to make safety locks allowing those trapped so to be able to escape without outside assistance. Back in 1902, however, you were – literally – on your own. THE SALOON AT GRAND AND GRAHAM H.H. Myers, a German saloon keeper, had moved recently from Manhattan to Brooklyn to open up a new saloon in the Dutch Town section of Williamsburg at Grand Street and Graham avenues. In his new place he “had things so arranged that he kept his beer barrels in an ice box in the cellar. One Saturday night in 1902, Myers had a thirsty crowd about the place, “all of whom were demanding more beer.” When one keg went dry, Myers descended his cellar stairs and entered the ice box to “put on” a new one. Myers had his set up such that the pipes leading from the beer taps behind his bar led down to the ice box in the cellar, where […]
