The cat of the Sunshine Hotel is not a cat of Old New York. But the building where this resident mouser made his home in the 1990s, 241 Bowery, has an interesting history dating back to the 1830s with ties to much larger animals and old-time Bowery characters with names like Beefsteak John and Chick Tricker.
Archive for the ‘Horse Tales’ Category
1879: Jim, the FDNY Fire Horse of Engine 33 Who Earned His Pension
Posted: 29th December 2022 by The Hatching Cat in FDNY Horses/Mascots, Horse TalesTags: Chief Hugh Bonner, Engine Company 33, Engine Company 52, FDNY history, William H. Nash
Under the 19th-century rules of the Fire Department of New York (FDNY), when horses were no longer fit for the hard service of pulling engines, hose reels, or ladder trucks, the department would sell them at auction to any huckster that needed an old horse to pull his cart or do his dirty work. But no such fate was to come to Jim—at least not if Chief Hugh Bonner or Engine 33 Captain William H. Nash had any say in the matter.
1897: Dan, the Lifesaving Fire Horse, and Dick, his pal, of Engine 4 at Old Slip
Posted: 14th May 2022 by The Hatching Cat in FDNY Horses/Mascots, Horse TalesTags: Engine Company 4, FDNY history, Martin Cook, New York City History, Old Slip
When FDNY veteran Martin Cook received his promotion to captain of Engine 4 in 1886, the company received two horses, Dan and Dick. Even as the two horses aged, they did the city and the FDNY proud. Captain Cook often received offers to trade in his team for younger animals, but he always turned them down. According to the FDNY veteran, there was not a more reliable, more careful, or faster team of fire horses in America.
1890: Tom and Jerry and the Famous Trotters Who Went Sleigh Riding on Jerome Avenue
Posted: 4th January 2022 by The Hatching Cat in Horse TalesTags: Fleetwood Park, Gabe Case, George H. Huber, Jerome Avenue, John J. Quinn, Macombs Dam Bridge, New York City History
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the first snowfall of the season in New York City was marked by a race in horse-drawn sleighs. Trotters of wealthy captains of industry, railroad men, bankers, merchants, and stablemen would race through Central Park, down Seventh Avenue, over the Central Bridge (Macombs Dam Bridge), and down Central Avenue (Jerome Avenue) to the popular roadhouses in what was then the West Morrisania neighborhood of the Bronx.
