“SHAKESPEARE’S GHOST” AT 437 HALSEY (1889)
******************************************************************************************************************************** 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? ******************************************************************************************************************************** The Brownstone Detectives investigates the histories of our clients’ old houses. In the process, we have come across no small number of incredibly juicy stories featuring the houses and their lineage of occupants. Every once in a while, those stories – as stories sometimes do – feature a topic we rarely wade into – the paranormal. While most properties we investigate do not involve the supernatural, it is even rarer still to find an old brownstone that comes with a thoroughly debunked ghost story. No. 437 Halsey Street – in the Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn – is one of those houses… ***************************************************************************************************** In late 1889, during a strong snowstorm in the City of Brooklyn, word began to get around about the “haunting” of an apartment house at the corner of Halsey Street and Lewis Avenue, along with its complement of frightened and fleeing former residents… “…the snow was blowing everybody in doors yesterday,” started the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, setting the scene for its readers of “an ambitious little ghost story-started out on its career of making trouble. The “trouble” mentioned in this story was the reaction that the rumor of ghosts in the apartment house had engendered. It brought to the sole remaining occupant of the structure a whole host […]
HOW A CENSUS-TAKER SAVED OUR BLOCK (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? ******************************************************************************************************************************** I can tell you a little bit about every single family on my block. Well, not the present day families, of course – that might be a little creepy. Actually, it is a lot easier to extract such personal information about the families that lived on my block more than 100 years ago – in the year 1900. No, I am not a mesmerist or paranormal investigator. I don’t read cards or tea leaves. Nor do I make tables float or ask the spirit guides to knock in answer to my questions. I happen to use a less fantastic, more pedestrian source for this type of information for my answers. For, you see, I am a Brownstone Detective – and I use the 1900 Federal Census. I’M FROM THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AND I’M HERE TO HELP. The founders of our Federal government in the 18th century demanded that a decennial census be instituted. The demand was delineated within the U.S. Constitution, and the first attempt at listing Americans took place in 1790. The State of New York decided, too, that knowing who lived within its political boundaries was important. And so the state also began taking its own census in 1825. It was a decennial census, as well, which, in order […]
