1896: Staten Island Cows Gone Wild in New York City at the Pavonia Ferry Terminal

Posted: 3rd August 2017 by The Hatching Cat in Cows and Cattle Stories
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The cows that went wild on West Street in 1896 were being transported from Staten Island to the stock yards in Jersey City via the Erie Railroad's Pavonia Ferry. Here are the stock yards pictured in 1913. Museum of the City of New York Collections

The cows that went wild on West Street in 1896 were being transported from Staten Island to the stock yards in Jersey City via the Erie Railroad Pavonia Ferry. Here are the stock yards pictured in 1913. Museum of the City of New York Collections

When New York City Policeman James Breen joined the Leonard Street Station in the late 19th century, he probably never dreamed that one day he’d have to play the role of a Wild West cowboy in Manhattan on West Street, at the Chambers Street Ferry Terminal.

In the late 19th century, West Street was always crowded in the afternoons during rush hour, even on Saturdays. The main thoroughfare was especially busy near the Chambers Street Ferry Terminal, where thousands of men, women, and children boarded the Erie Railroad Pavonia Ferry to Harsimus Cove in Jersey City, New Jersey.

On Saturday, January 23, 1896, Policeman Breen was on crossing duty at the ferry terminal when he saw about 20 women and children who were just about to cross West Street scatter in every direction. Turning around to see what had caused the commotion, he saw a herd of cows charging toward him. Within seconds, he was knocked to the ground.

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1887: Raining Cats and Soap Bubbles at the Grand Street Museum in Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Posted: 2nd July 2017 by The Hatching Cat in Cat Stories, Featured Felines
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Raining Cats

The following cat story of Old Brooklyn is courtesy of The Brownstone Detectives, who first published this tale in March 2017. I take the story one step further by exploring the history around the Grand Street Museum and the land on which it was once located. 

Agent Clark Investigates a Report of Cruelty to Cats

In December 1887, Agent Frank Clark of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) received a letter from a resident of the Eastern District in Brooklyn notifying him that cats were being abused during the production of a musical comedy called the “Soap Bubble” at the Grand Street Museum in Williamsburg. According to the letter writer, a large number of cats were being used as shooting targets by the actors during the first act of the play.

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1928: Abe, the Times Square Tiger Cat Who Refused to Scat From the Hotel Lincoln, II

Posted: 10th June 2017 by The Hatching Cat in Cat Mascots, Cat Stories
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James T. Clyde, the manager of the new Hotel Lincoln on Eighth Avenue, welcomed the stray kitten into his establishment and named him, appropriately, Abe.

James T. Clyde, the manager of the new Hotel Lincoln at 700 Eighth Avenue, welcomed the stray kitten into his establishment and named him, appropriately, Abe.

“A half-grown cat has adopted the Hotel Lincoln as its permanent home. Cats have always been regarded as a good omen, especially when they come to the door unsolicited. This kitten has a special history. He was born on the site of the present hotel, and spent his life in the debris while the hotel was in course of construction. Let us all be kind to our new mascot. His name from now on is Abe.” — James T. Clyde, manager, Hotel Lincoln, March 1928

In Part I of this Old New York cat story, we met Abe, the lucky kitten who was born in the spring of 1927 on the corner of Eighth Avenue and 45th Street in New York City’s Time Square neighborhood.  Although his mother cat and two brother kittens left the area a couple of months later, Abe stayed on the construction site. Even as the new Hotel Lincoln continued to rise higher and higher each day, Abe refused to scat.

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1928: Abe, the Times Square Tiger Cat Who Refused to Scat From the Hotel Lincoln, Part I

Posted: 4th June 2017 by The Hatching Cat in Cat Mascots, Cat Stories
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Abe, the mascot cat of the Hotel Lincoln, in 1928 or 1929.

Abe, the mascot cat of New York City’s brand-new Hotel Lincoln at 700 Eighth Avenue. (Wisconsin Daily Tribune, June 25, 1928)

Some studies have shown that where you’re born has a huge impact on how far you’ll go in life. I think the same holds true for cats, especially those who are born in large cities like New York.

When Abe’s mother cat gave birth to three kittens in New York City’s Time Square neighborhood in 1928, she couldn’t have picked a better place to bring her little ones into the world.

I don’t know what possessed her to give birth among the wrecking crews at the corner of Eighth Avenue and 45th Street, but the decision paid off big time for one little guy who would one day be called Abe.

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1926: The Last of the Bowling Green Cat Massacres in New York City’s “Little Syria,” Part II

Posted: 29th May 2017 by The Hatching Cat in Cat Stories
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45 West Street New York

In 1915, the Bowling Green Neighborhood Association established a community center at 45 West Street. The four-story building housed a day nursery, library, and rooms for English instruction, household arts, citizenship classes, and various clubs. The community playground was behind the wall to the right in this photo.

In 1917, the president of the Bowling Green Neighborhood Association (BGNA) came up with a plan to help control the feral cat population in Manhattan’s Lower West Side. Dr. Miner C. Hill, a pediatrician in charge of the nonprofit association’s baby clinic, believed that the stray cats were responsible for spreading diseases to the poor immigrant babies and children under his care.

Dr. Hill’s idea was to offer a nickel to every neighborhood child who captured and delivered a stray cat to the Bowling Green Community Playground on West and Washington streets. There, the cats would be placed in boxes and carted off to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals “to finish the job.”

For the next 10 years, the annual cat roundup — or annual Bowling Green cat massacre as I prefer to call it — resulted in the murder of thousands of cats and kittens at the hands of little children and the SPCA. (The association claimed that the roundup of stray cats was done “for humanitarian purposes” because the cats were sick and starving; unfortunately many healthy cats were also captured during this annual open season on felines.)

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