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 […]
Archive for the ‘Cat Stories’ Category
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
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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 […]
1909: The Anglican Cats of Morton Street in New York City’s Greenwich Village
Posted: 30th March 2019 by The Hatching Cat in Cat StoriesTags: Annetje Jans, Greenwich Village, Morton Street, New York City History, Trinity Church, Wouter Van Twiller
On a late summer day in 1909, during the dog days of August, to be exact, a reporter for the New York Sun noted that there were almost as many cats on Morton Street as there were politicians. I’m not sure if he meant “as there were politicians on Morton Street” or if he meant […]
1905: The Crazy Cat Lady Who Had Her Day in Yorkville Police Court
Posted: 24th March 2019 by The Hatching Cat in Cat Stories, Crazy Cat LadiesTags: Hans Kaiser, Hugh Gaine, Hunters Key, New York City History, Pauline Von Mauderoth, Yorkville Police Court
Anna Kaiser was a crazy cat women. Her husband, Hans, was not crazy about cats. Magistrate Ommen of the Yorkville Police Court had to take one side or the other, whether he liked cats or not. Before the couple married, Anna (née Ammann) had about 50 cats. She agreed to get rid of 20 of […]
1901: Richard II and Richard III, the Swimming and Vegetarian Cats of the U.S. Barge Office at NYC’s Battery Park
Posted: 10th March 2019 by The Hatching Cat in Cat Mascots, Cat StoriesTags: Battery Park, Castle Garden, cats in history, Ellis Island, New York History, Richard Ganley
How far would your cats be willing to go to catch a rat? Would they be willing to jump in a river like this barge office cat Old New York once did? My two cats live indoors, and I’ve yet to see any type of rodent in my house, but I’d make a pretty high […]
