In Part I of this Old New York cat story, we met Dr. Hale, the superintendent of Brooklyn’s public baths who was arrested and charged with uncleanliness — that is, for having a messy house filled with way too many cats. In Part II, I’ll tell you why the fur was flying at 40 First Place […]
Archive for the ‘Cat Stories’ Category
1917: Dr. Hale’s House of 100 Cats in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn (Part II)
Posted: 16th August 2018 by The Hatching Cat in Cat StoriesTags: 40 First Place, Brooklyn History, Brooklyn Public Baths, Cats of Old New York, Dr. William Henry Hale, New York City History, Public Bath No. 7
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1917: Dr. William H. Hale’s House of 100 Cats in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn (Part I)
Posted: 13th August 2018 by The Hatching Cat in Cat StoriesTags: Brooklyn Public Baths, Carroll Gardens, Cats of Old New York, Louisa G. Hale, New York History, William H. Hale
Part I: Guilty of Having Too Many Cats Many people ask me how I find all the stories for my Hatching Cat blog. One of the things I often do is search for keywords in the old newspaper archives that are available online. For this story, I searched for news articles about “too many cats.” […]
1899: Dewey, Stockings, and the Great Cat Hunt at New York City’s Bellevue Hospital
Posted: 28th July 2018 by The Hatching Cat in Cat StoriesTags: Bellevue Hospital, Insane Pavilion, Leia James, Lillie James, New York City History
Miss Lillie James had a lot of cats. She adored her pets, but her extreme affection for them eventually took over her life. Soon she could do nothing but worry that her feline companions would abandon her or die. Her sister, Miss Leia James, told the doctors at Bellevue Hospital that Lillie had been driven crazy by her cats. Miss […]
1908: Tommie Blackberry, the MacDougal Street Nursery Cat With Ties to a Famous Anti-Suffragist
Posted: 26th May 2018 by The Hatching Cat in Cat Mascots, Cat StoriesTags: Arthur Murray Dodge, Jewell Day Nursery, Josephine Jewell Dodge, MacDougal Street, New York City History, One Vandam
“It seems almost a misnomer to speak of it as a ‘charity’ in the accepted meaning of the word. Far rather is it an expression of the true and highest signification the term can bear; the impulse which takes these little ones from their pitiful and often squalid surroundings, at the same time enabling their […]
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
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 […]
