Tom and his brother cat were born in Gage & Tollner’s restaurant in 1917, when the famous oyster bar and chophouse was on the ground floor of the circa 1875 Craft building at 372-374 Fulton Street. No one knows what happened to his mother and brother, but Tom “apparently recognized his proper sphere in life” and stayed on at Gage & Tollner, where he dined on scallops alongside great icons like Mae West and Jimmy Durante.
Archive for the ‘Cat Stories’ Category
1924: Tom, the 20-Pound Brooklyn Cat of Gage & Tollner on Fulton Street
Posted: 23rd May 2022 by The Hatching Cat in Cat Stories, Cats in the MewsTags: Brooklyn History, Cats of Old New York, Fulton Street, Gage & Tollner, John Craft, Samuel Smith
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1897: The Cobble Hill Cat That Caused a Commotion in St. Paul’s Church
Posted: 12th March 2022 by The Hatching Cat in Cat Stories, Cats in the MewsTags: Brooklyn History, Cats of Old New York, Cobble Hill, Cornelius Heeney, Father William J. Hill, St. Paul's Church
A gaunt tabby cat, a tiny poodle, and a few hysterical children walk into a church… No, this is not the start of a bad bar joke, but it was the start of a comedy of errors that took place at St. Paul’s Roman Catholic Church in the Cobble Hill section of Brooklyn on May 2, 1897. According to The New York Times, “never before had such a commotion been raised in this church.”
1925: Dunder, the Carnegie Hill Cat Who Survived a Suicide and Inherited a Fortune
Posted: 27th February 2022 by The Hatching Cat in Cat Stories, Cats in the MewsTags: 172 East 85th Street, Andrew Carnegie, Carnegie Hill, Cats of Old New York, Elizabeth Berhm, Eugene Berhm, New York City History
Mrs. Elizabeth W. Berhm, a kindly widow of about 61 years old, had always devoted herself to animals. She was known in her Carnegie Hill neighborhood as the “cat woman” because her home was always open to stray cats. In her small, two-room apartment at the rear of 172 East 85th Street, milk and kindness were always waiting for any cat that needed it.
No doubt, then, the neighbors must have been shocked to learn that Elizabeth had almost taken the life of her own pet cat, Dunder, while she committed suicide.
1909: Dewey and Dick, the Brooklyn Police Cat Mascots of 484 Liberty Avenue
Posted: 22nd January 2022 by The Hatching Cat in Cat Mascots, Cat StoriesTags: 484 Liberty Avenue, 75th Precinct, Brooklyn History, New Lots Police, NYPD history, police cats
As the beloved cat mascots of the 153rd Precinct, Dewey and Dick lived a life of luxury in the castle-like police station at 484 Liberty Avenue in the East New York section of Brooklyn.
1900: The Midtown Cat That Beat a Possum Wrangler of the Southern Railway
Posted: 8th January 2022 by The Hatching Cat in Cat Stories, Cats in the MewsTags: Alexander S. Thweatt, Nannie Neill Hays, New York City History, Peterson Thweatt, Southern Railway, Thomas H. Hays
Once upon a time, a renowned employee for the Southern Railway lost a battle to a cat that had broken into his home on West 44th Street. This Southern gentlemen was a pro at catching possums, but he was no match for a stray New York City feline.
