In 1893, American lyricist and playwright Harry S. Miller–at one time a New Yorker–wrote a comic song titled “The Cat Came Back.” The original chorus to the whimsical ditty, which today is still a popular children’s song (or at least it was when I was a kid in the previous century), always comes to mind […]
Archive for the ‘Cat Stories’ Category
1921: Minnie, the New York-Bermuda Ship Cat of Pier 95 That Kept Coming Back
Posted: 18th April 2018 by The Hatching Cat in Cat Mascots, Cat StoriesTags: Cornelius Cosine, Dyckman, Fort St. George, Harsenville, Jacob Harsen, New York History, Sherman Square
4
1910: A Cat, A Bulldog, and a Lobster Walk into a Harlem Restaurant…
Posted: 18th March 2018 by The Hatching Cat in Animal Stories, Cat StoriesTags: 125th Street, Apollo Theater, Hannah Lawrence, Harlem, Jacob Schieffelin, Manhattanville, New York History, Nieuw Haarlem
This quirky lobster tale of Old New York begins on a Sunday night in May 1910 when Gus, a brindle bulldog, walked into Fay’s restaurant at 255 West 125th Street in Harlem around 7 p.m. and sat down for dinner with his master. Gus was reportedly well behaved, so he was allowed to sit with his […]
1899: The New York Cat Who Fell to Earth on West Fourth Street
Posted: 26th February 2018 by The Hatching Cat in Cat StoriesTags: Benjamin G. Dovey, cat story, Herring Farm, New York City History, New York University, Washington Square, West Fourth Street
On September 4, 1889, Benjamin G. Dovey offered a $10 reward for any information leading to the arrest of the person who had tossed a glossy black cat with tiger stripes from a top-floor window of the brick house at 28 West Fourth Street. “If I can discover the guilty wretch who hurled that poor, […]
1883: Ned, the First Cat to Cross Over the New Brooklyn Bridge
Posted: 19th January 2018 by The Hatching Cat in Cat StoriesTags: Brooklyn Bridge, C.W. McAuliffe, Emily Roebling, Famous Cats, Harmony Hall, John A. Roebling, New York City History
In 1866, the New York State Legislature passed legislation authorizing the construction of an East River bridge to connect Manhattan and Brooklyn. A year later, the New York Bridge Company was incorporated and John A. Roebling, who presented a design for a 1,600-foot bridge, was appointed chief engineer for the Brooklyn Bridge. Following a series […]
1906: Speck, the Momma Cat Who Saved Christmas for 16 Families at 27 Second Avenue on the Lower East Side
Posted: 16th December 2017 by The Hatching Cat in Cat StoriesTags: 27 Second Avenue, fire cat, Frederick Turkowsky, Henry Hellmers, hero cat, New York City History, Philip Minthorne
Speck was an ordinary New York City cat who led an ordinary life in Frederick Turkowsky’s plumbing shop at 27 Second Avenue. Up until December 5, 1906, very few people on the Lower East Side, save for Frederick, even knew she existed. According to a plumbing trade journal published in April 1905, Frederick was already established […]
