THE RETURN SLAVE TRADE IN DUMBO (1889)
Back in the 19th century, newspapers knew how to tell a good yarn. And who better to get their material from than sailors who were known for spinning a few of their own. So, in 1889, when reporters heard a rumor about a ship filled with escaped snakes and monkeys, many of the former making meals of many of the latter, they raced down to the shipyards to see what stories they could find. THE CLIPPER SHIP MONROVIA AT THE EMPIRE STORES Docked down at the Empire Stores, a chain of huge coffee warehouses strategically built near the Fulton shipyard docks – in what is today known as DUMBO – was a relatively new, 3-masted clipper bark, the Monrovia. The Monrovia’s original purpose was the Liberian trade, but as all shipping companies had to make up for costs in any way they could, they usually took on a trade in passengers. The clippers’s trade route was New York to Liberia, though, so there were few passenger sources other than missionaries – until they learned of the groups hoping to repatriate former slaves. In this case, at the request of the American Colonization Society, the Monrovia had been transferring black emigrants, many of them former slaves, back to their African homeland. OUT OF AFRICA On the date of her return to New York, the Monrovia was transporting in her holds palm oil, ginger, palm nuts, cattle hides, canewood, and coffee, the last of which, in particular, caused her to dock at […]
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 […]
