Jane’s Cat WalkSunday, May 9, 202110 AM (EST) From bodegas and bookstores to libraries, plays, hotels—and even city transit—cats have left a big impurression on New York City history. On Sunday, May 9, I will be sharing a few of my favorite Cat Men of Gotham stories during Jane’s Cat Walk, a virtual event sponsored by the […]
Archive for the ‘Cat Stories’ Category
Upcoming Virtual Events: Jane’s Cat Walk and More
Posted: 3rd May 2021 by The Hatching Cat in Cat Stories, Virtual EventsTags: Cat Stories, Cats of Old New York, Free Virtual Events, Jane's Cat Walk, Municipal Art Society of New York
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1895: Dolph, the Fine Cat “Goated Into” a Tight Spot at the East Harlem Ice Palace
Posted: 12th April 2021 by The Hatching Cat in Cat Stories, Cats in the MewsTags: Cats of Old New York, Harlem history, Ice Palace Skating Rink, New Star Casino, New York City History, Star Theatre, Wolf Falk
Dolph the cat could do many tricks, but his skills did not come in handy when a goat led him into the Ice Palace Skating Rink on East 107th Street, where he was stuck without food and water for eight days.
1908: Pete, The Test Pilot Cat of the Junior Aero Club Who Refused to Fly
Posted: 6th April 2021 by The Hatching Cat in Cat Stories, Cats in the MewsTags: Cats of Old New York, Emma Lilian Todd, Junior Aero Club, Radio Club of America
On April 4, 1908, the members of the Junior Aero Club held a meeting on the roof of 282 Ninth Avenue near 26th Street. This six-story building was then a factory owned by A. Leo Stevens, where he made dirigible balloons. The purpose of the meeting was “to liberate” about 200 rubber balloons and several larger balloons and small airplanes that the young boys had made from tissue paper and canvas.
On this particular day, there was a cat named Pete on the roof. I don’t know how Pete came to be on this roof, but apparently he was the pet of one of the members or organizers of the Junior Aero Club. He was also the club’s unwilling test pilot.
1934: Old Timer, Mr. White, and Jonathan, the Gentlemen Cats of Greenwich Avenue
Posted: 7th March 2021 by The Hatching Cat in Cat Stories, Cats in the MewsTags: Cats of Old New York, Emily Burmeister, Greenwich Avenue, Monument Lane, New York City History, Road to the Obelisk
Greenwich Village in the early 1900s was home to many notable cats that made the headline news. There were the Bohemian cats led by Crazy Cat, who reigned supreme around Sheridan Square during the 1910s. And there were the more refined gentlemen cats like Old Timer, Mr. White, and Jonathan, who occupied the feline throne on Greenwich Avenue in the late 1920s and early 1930s.
1894: The International Alley Cats of Poverty Hollow at Pitt Street and Broome Street
Posted: 28th February 2021 by The Hatching Cat in Cat Stories, Crazy Cat LadiesTags: Cats of Old New York, Delancey Farm, John R. Livingston, Lower East Side, Mount Pitt, New York City History, Pitt Street, Poverty Hollow
Miss Clementine Anderson and Miss Mary J. Anderson were two wealthy, educated, and refined “spinsters” who turned the Poverty Hollow neighborhood around Broome and Pitt Streets on the Lower East Side into a paradise for cats.
