From 1900 to 1908, the Dyker Meadow Golf Club had a mascot cat named Lillian Russell who was an expert fishing cat.
Archive for the ‘Cat Stories’ Category
1904: Lillian Russell, the Fishing Cat of Brooklyn’s Dyker Meadow Golf Club, II
Posted: 19th May 2019 by The Hatching Cat in Cat Mascots, Cat StoriesTags: Brooklyn History, Dyker Beach, Lillian Russell, New York City History
1904: Lillian Russell, the Fishing Cat of Brooklyn’s Dyker Meadow Golf Club, I
Posted: 13th May 2019 by The Hatching Cat in Cat Mascots, Cat StoriesTags: Brooklyn History, Dyker Meadow Golf Course, Fort Hamilton, Jacques Cortelyou, New York History, Peter Cortelyou
Part I of a 2-Part Cat Tale Fishing at Dyker Meadows In 1821, Peter Cortelyou wrote a letter to William J. Lott concerning some local fishing practices that he thought could jeopardize the Cortelyou family fishery. The fishery was located on the Narrows at the foot of present-day Battery Avenue, adjacent to Dyker Meadows and […]
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 […]
1911: The Civil Service Cat Of the New York City Tenement House Department
Posted: 9th April 2019 by The Hatching Cat in Cat StoriesTags: cats in history, John J. Murphy, New York City History, Tenement House Act, Tenement House Department, William Ambrose Prendergast
A tenement house in New York is any building or part thereof which is occupied as the residence of three families or more living independently of each other and doing their own cooking in the premises. It includes apartment houses, flat houses and all other houses of similar character.” –John J. Murphy, Commissioner of the […]



