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?
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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 230 Livingston Street.
His slogan at his other umbrella stores was the catchy, “Get Under a STRONG Umbrella – and your Umbrella Troubles are over!”
Strong’s son got into the business with him around the turn of the century. Strong, Sr., finally retired in 1925.
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Brownstone Detectives is an historic property research agency. Our mission is to document and save the histories of our clients’ homes. From our research, we produce our celebrated House History Books and House History Reports. Contact us today to begin discovering the history of your home.
