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.
Archive for the ‘Crazy Cat Ladies’ Category
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
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1904: The 80-180 Felines of Caroline Ewen, the Wealthy Cat Lady of East Harlem
Posted: 6th August 2020 by The Hatching Cat in Cat Stories, Crazy Cat LadiesTags: 105 East 101st Street, Brigadier General John Ewen, Caroline G. Ewen, Cats of Old New York, Ewen Park, New York City History
In August 1904, two of Caroline G. Ewen’s neighbors on East 101st Street petitioned the Board of Health regarding the nightly concerts of 80 or more fat and sassy cats sheltered in the woman’s three-stone brownstone at 105 East 101st Street. “It is not that we object to Miss Ewan’s humane impulses in caring for all the stray and homeless felines of the neighborhood, but the noise of her pets is something wonderful,” the petitioners said. “It is enough to drive a strong man with a newly-signed pledge in the pocket to drink.”
1890: The Cat Lady of Bedford Street and Her 29 Feline Companions
Posted: 25th March 2020 by The Hatching Cat in Cat Stories, Crazy Cat LadiesTags: Cats of Old New York, Crazy Cat Lady, Herring Farm, Jane Duncan, Jefferson Market Court, New York City History, William W. Duncan
On March 25, 1890, Jefferson Market Police Court Justice White committed Mrs. Jane Duncan to the care of the Commissioners of Charities and Correction “for examination as to her sanity.” The sentencing stemmed from charges from her landlord, Dr. Thomas C. Knox, who feared that Mrs. Duncan had too many cats in her apartment at 30 Bedford Street.
1908: The Widow of Yorkville Who Shared Her Ramshackle Mansion with 23 Cats and Dogs
Posted: 4th January 2020 by The Hatching Cat in Cat Stories, Crazy Cat LadiesTags: Angelica Schuyler Reed, Bide-a-Wee, Captain Edward Dunscome, Metropolitan Republican Club, Milne Parker, New York City History, Yorkville
In 1908, a member of Old New York’s most aristocratic families was evicted from a ramshackle mansion on East 83rd Street in Yorkville, where she had been barely surviving with her 15 dogs and 8 cats. @Bideawee
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 […]
