Mary Miner was a proverbial crazy cat lady who lived with about 50 cats in a small, dingy room on Hamilton Street. The room was one of many in a ramshackle tenement called The Ship, a building on the Lower East Side with an interesting history dating back to the 1700s.
Posts Tagged ‘Crazy Cat Lady’
1886: The Cat Farm at “The Ship” on NYC’s Hamilton Street
Posted: 30th November 2023 by The Hatching Cat in Cat StoriesTags: Cats of Old New York, Crazy Cat Lady, Hamilton Street, Jacob Riis, Knickerbocker Village, NYC History
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1890: The Cat Lady of Bedford Street and Her 29 Feline Companions
Posted: 25th March 2020 by The Hatching Cat in Cat Stories, Crazy Cat LadiesTags: Cats of Old New York, Crazy Cat Lady, Herring Farm, Jane Duncan, Jefferson Market Court, New York City History, William W. Duncan
On March 25, 1890, Jefferson Market Police Court Justice White committed Mrs. Jane Duncan to the care of the Commissioners of Charities and Correction “for examination as to her sanity.” The sentencing stemmed from charges from her landlord, Dr. Thomas C. Knox, who feared that Mrs. Duncan had too many cats in her apartment at 30 Bedford Street.
1901: The Tramp Cats That Took Over A Bronx Tenement on St. Ann’s Avenue
Posted: 2nd June 2019 by The Hatching Cat in Cat StoriesTags: Bronx History, Crazy Cat Lady, Gouverneur Morris, Morrisania, New York City History, St. Ann's Avenue
In January 1901, the janitress for the tenement at 141 Saint Ann’s Avenue in the Bronx opened her heart and door to many cats seeking food and shelter.
1902: The Homeless Cat Lady of Battle Row on Tenth Avenue and West 61st Street
Posted: 27th April 2019 by The Hatching Cat in Cat Stories, Crazy Cat LadiesTags: Battle Row, Crazy Cat Lady, Helen Sawtelle, John Low, John Somarindyck, New York City History
“Go up Tenth Avenue and in various cross streets running down to the river are some of the worst blocks in the city; and there are blocks corresponding with them along the East River. The names of some of these places are significant: ‘Battle Row,’ and ‘Hell’s Kitchen,’ and ‘Sebastopol.’” — James W. Shepp and […]
1924: Gerry and the Cats of Fort Greene Place Who Drove an Artist From His Brooklyn Home
Posted: 19th April 2019 by The Hatching Cat in Cat StoriesTags: 67 Fort Greene Place, Brooklyn History, Christiana A. Jackson, Crazy Cat Lady, Fort Greene, Frieda Saponapf, Lubomir Saponapf, New York City History
Most of the cat-women stories of Old New York were of two genres: outlandish tales of the proverbial “crazy cat lady” who had a dozen or more cats in her house or newsy stories about women who bred cats on a professional basis to sell to wealthy Victorian ladies or to show at the various […]
