DR. DOLITTLE OF BROOKLYN HEIGHTS (1910)
******************************************************************************************************************************** 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 neighborhoods have their odd birds. In the early part of the 20th century, Brooklyn Heights had Harold S. Burnett. Burnett, known throughout Brooklyn as a keeper and handler of exotic animals, birds, and reptiles, was often in the newspapers, either because of his escapades with his animals, or because of the other one involving the divorce of his wife. And Burnett had quite the collection of animals – from boa constrictors, to lizards, to game cocks, to fighting dogs and bucking broncos. There didn’t seem to be an animal that Burnett would not consider handling. THE DAY THE BEAR APPEARED One day, Burnett confessed to a friend his desire to own a bear. So, when that friend returned from a hunting trip, he sent a bruin to Burnett as a gift. “He lives in Flatbush and bagged it on a hunting trip,” Burnett explained how he came by the animal. “But the bear was so large they had to take the doors off the hinges to get it in the back yard and it was such a fierce brute that I couldn’t let it get out of its cage.” “SO I DECIDED TO HAVE IT SHOT.” At some point after having the animal in his backyard for short period, Burnett […]
UMBRELLA WEEK…ALREADY? (1920)
******************************************************************************************************************************** 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 it was October of 1920, then you knew it was National Umbrella Week…right? Yaaaaaaaa……riiiiiiiiiiight…… At the very least, they were celebrating the occasion down at 114 Court Street. A product of the post-war marketing boom, “National Umbrella Week” was never celebrated again after 1920. But it was good while it lasted. Maybe it sold an extra umbrella or two. Who knows? THE BROOKLYN UMBRELLA COMPANY Today, we know 114 Court Street – that squat, 2-story, brick building in downtown Brooklyn – as a pizza joint. Back in 1919, though, it housed the Brooklyn Umbrella Company. The company sold umbrellas and they fixed umbrellas. This was back in a time when umbrellas were an investment in inclement weather – not throwaways cheaply mass-produced in China. Offering “linen gloria” and “union taffeta,” they sold “umbrellas that are a pleasure to carry.” Owned and operated by Isaac Smith Strong, The Brooklyn Umbrella Company started manufacturing umbrellas at this location around 1895. They finally closed up shop just a few years before the beginning of the depression, after which the location became a beauty shop and then later a restaurant. THE STRONG UMBRELLA Strong, himself, though, produced umbrellas well before 1895, but under his own name at 170 Fulton Street, and then later at […]
