The Hatching Cat of Gotham

This 1887 map shows the Frederick family’s real estate holdings at the northwest corner of Hoyt and Livingston streets. In 1912, #24 Hoyt Street was actually two brick buildings occupied by Anthony Orenckinto’s barber shop, a tailor shop, and Octavia Frederick’s tiny apartment. The small one-story frame building (#26) was a newspaper store, and #30 was a three-story frame building that housed Mrs. Laura Moris’s restaurant in the basement and R.C. Eldert upholsterers on the top floors. In the late 1880s, the family lived at #30 Hoyt (aka #201 Livingston) and Octavia’s brothers, Alphonse and Ernest, operated a stained glass-making facility in the rear of #16-18 Hoyt Street.