The Home for Friendless Domestic Animals
In 1891, Broadway actress Julia Marlowe boarded her cat Princeton at the new “Home for Friendless Domestic Animals” in Washington Heights. Julia reportedly paid 50 cents a week for Princeton to stay at the home while she was out of town touring with various theater groups throughout the country.
I don’t know where Julia was living at this time, but she may have read about the home for cats in the newspapers and taken the Tenth Avenue cable car, which stopped at 187th Street and allowed passengers to take cats and dogs to the home on designated days of the week.
The home, on the east side of Amsterdam Avenue near West 187th Street, was operated by the Society to Befriend Domestic Animals. The society was founded by Mrs. Sarah J. Edwards and Mrs. Grace Georgia Devide. Other members included Mrs. Sarah Jennie Edwards, Mrs. Emma Charlton, Mrs. Mary Hans, and Mrs. Mary Wilson.
In 1891, Miss Marlowe was still four years away from making her successful debut on Broadway, which would establish her as a leading American actress of Shakespeare. So I imagine she did not have a lot of money at this time, and therefore, had no other affordable option for boarding her cherished cat (just an assumption). She may have also believed that Pumpkin would be happy being with other cats in a country setting.
You see, the home for friendless animals comprised a dilapidated, two-story frame farmhouse and two barns on the former Barney and Rosannah Bowers farm, which the society rented for $50 a month. The paint had all but worn off the house, and many of the windows were broken, but it did have some features that I’m sure the cats and dogs enjoyed. Here’s how Grace Devide described the home to a reporter:
“We’ve got the finest place in the world for the poor cats… It’s got a couple of barns upon it, which we’ll fix up for the cats to sleep in, you know. I’ll live in the house, and Mrs. Edwards’ niece, who loves cats just as much as I do, will be there with me, and help care for the poor maltreated things.
Oh, we’re going to have a regular little heaven for the cats up there, you know. We’ll have the place all fenced in with wire, so they can’t get out, and they will have the run of the house during the day.”
When the home first opened in October 1890, the women welcomed their first four-legged customers, which included 14 cats and 7 dogs (the dogs were let in through a separate side door). Some of the original feline boarders included Malta, Lady Hardy, and Cash. The fencing had not yet been installed, but the women said they planned on creating four fenced-in areas on the six-acre property to keep all the male and female cats and dogs separated.
By April 1891, there were 125 cats and 10 dogs at the house, including a few boarders whose transient owners, like Julia Marlowe, paid for their pet’s stay while they were out of town.
Sadly, the home was shut down in 1893, and the cat women got in trouble with the law for killing hundreds of cats, which was reported by Nellie Bly. I wrote about this morbid turn of events a while back in The Crazy New York Cat Ladies and the Murderous Band of Mercy.
Julia Marlowe Moves to the Catskills
In 1899, Julia and her husband, actor Robert Taber, constructed a country home in the western part of the Catskill Mountains which they called Highmount. The estate featured a large colonial home on 400 acres, of which only a small amount was laid out in lawn, garden, and driveways.
Julia loved the outdoors, especially going for long walks and playing golf. She also lived to go “automobiling,” which could do on the driveway leading to her country estate.
Although Julia and Robert divorced in 1900 after only six years of marriage, Julia continued to reside at Highmount during her off-season, which ran from the end of May through September. Hopefully Pumpkin was able to stay with her in this beautiful home while she was there.
The Beresford Cat Club
In 1899, the same year Julia built her new home in the Catskills, Mrs. Clinton Locke of Chicago founded the Beresford Cat Club. The club was named in honor of Lady Marcus Beresford of England, who had founded The Cat Club of England in 1898.
Julia Marlowe was reportedly a very active member of the Beresford Cat Club. According to an article in the Inter Ocean in October 1902, she had several valuable show cats, some of which may have been Siamese.
Fiametta, the Critical Cat
In 1907, while staying at the Royal Palace Hotel in London, Julia was presented with a cat that had been found on the Island of Malta. Ms. Marlowe named her Fiametta, after a play in which she had appeared in New York.
One time, about a year later, Julia received a manuscript for a new play from a theatrical agent in London. While she was away at breakfast, Fiametta sunk her claws into the papers and destroyed them. When Julia returned to her drawing room, she found the cat buried under a pile of the shredded, typewritten pages.
Apparently Fiametta did not think highly of the new play. In fact, according to a small article about the incident in the Altoona Times (Altoona, Pennsylvania), “Julia’s pet cat tore up the manuscript of the play simply because the sagacious animal deemed it worthless.”
Julia Marlowe’s Final Years
Several years after the death of her second husband, actor Edward H. Sothern, in 1933, Julia donated her entire collection of costumes and books to the Museum of the City of New York. She moved into a small suite at the Plaza Hotel overlooking Central Park, which comprised a living room, a small pantry, and two small bedrooms.
Julia Marlowe died at the Plaza on November 12, 1950, at the age of 85. The newspapers noted that she never had any children; there was no mention of her cats.
