Archive for the ‘Dog Tails’ Category

On Saturday, May 7, I will be leading a virtual presentation for the Municipal Art Society of New York called “The Dog Days of Gotham.” The presentation will be one of hundreds of virtual and guided tours that will take place the weekend of May 6-8 as part of Jane’s Walk NYC. Registration for this free event is required.  

When James A. Hogg, a professional rat catcher by trade, opened his new dog bathhouse in Harlem in 1903, it attracted much attention from the press. Sure, there were by this time several hospitals for dogs and other animals. And boarding houses for those wealthy pet owners who could afford it had also been around for years. But a bathhouse for dogs was quite a novel idea, even for a city where dogs were considered a luxury.

Visitors to the old East New York Police Station never failed to notice the large Newfoundland dog sitting about as if he owned the place. The old dog, described as long and shaggy and turning gray around the face, was a favorite among all the policemen as well as “citizens in general and reporters in particular.”

With “sterling qualities, his intelligence and his friendly feeling toward the law abiding portion of the human race,” Nick had truly earned his sergeant’s stripes.

There was much ado on Christmas Eve in the home of Mrs. Brewer, at 43 East 21st Street, and no trouble was spared in decking the towering Christmas tree with lots of candles and candies for her little dog,

A short but sweet Christmas story, with a detailed history of Love Lane and Rose Hill Farm, in what is now the Rose Hill neighborhood, just north of Gramercy Park and west of Kips Bay.

“The barking of two dogs, answering each other on the wind and sleet swept East River saved the lives of more than 80 men, women and children asleep in the cabins of a line of 40 coal barges, torn from their moorings, at the foot of East 96th Street.”–New York Daily News, December 27, 1926