1796: Captain Jacob Crowninshield Brings a Beer-Drinking Elephant to New York

Posted: 24th March 2013 by The Hatching Cat in Animal Attractions, Elephant Tales
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Crowninshield’s Elephant Is the First to Come to America

A summary of the travels of the elephant can be traced through newspaper reports and public notices. The first account of the elephant in the U.S. appeared in The Argus and Green Leaf Advertiser, which on April 23, 1796, advertised the elephant’s exhibition in New York at the corner of Beaver Street and Broadway.
A summary of the travels of the elephant can be traced through newspaper reports and public notices. The first account of the elephant in the U.S. appeared in The Argus and Green Leaf Advertiser, which on April 23, 1796, advertised the elephant’s exhibition in New York at the corner of Beaver Street and Broadway.

On April 3, 1793, John Bill Ricketts, an English equestrian rider, introduced America to the circus in Philadelphia. Ricketts’ circus featured horses, acrobats, a rope walker, and a clown — but it didn’t have an elephant. As of that date, no elephant had ever stepped foot on U.S. soil.

John Bill Ricketts brought the first modern circus to the U.S. He has been identified as the subject of this unfinished portrait by Gilbert Stuart.
John Bill Ricketts brought the first modern circus to the U.S. He has been identified as the subject of this unfinished portrait by Gilbert Stuart.

Exactly three years later, on April 12, 1796, Captain Jacob Crowninshield arrived in New York Harbor on a trading ship called the America. On board was a two-year-old female elephant the captain had purchased in India for $450. She was the first elephant to ever come to America.

Captain Jacob Crowninshield

Jacob Crowninshield came from a family of shippers that ran the firm of George Crowninshield and Sons of Salem, Massachusetts. Jacob was one of five brothers, all in command of ships in trade with India. One brother, Benjamin Williams Crowninshield, was U.S. Secretary of the Navy under Presidents James Madison and James Monroe.

Details of Captain Crowninshield’s pachyderm purchase come from a pile of letters and sea journals kept in an old chest of his father, John C. Crowninshield (nee Johannes Caspar Richter von Kronenschieldt). Writing to his brothers from India on November 2, 1795, Jacob wrote:

Captain Jacob Crowninshield
Jacob Crowninshield (1770-1808) was a ship captain and a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts. In 1805, President Thomas Jefferson offered him the position of U.S. Secretary of the Navy, but due to health issues, he never filled this position.

“We take home a fine young elephant two years old, at $450.00. It is almost as large as a very large ox, and I dare say we shall get it home safe, if so it will bring at least $5000.00. We shall at first be obliged to keep it in the southern states until it becomes hardened to the climate.


I suppose you will laugh at this scheme, but I do not mind that, will turn elephant driver. We have plenty of water at the Cape and St. Helena. This was my plan.

Ben did not come into it, so if it succeeds, I ought to have the whole credit and honor too; of course you know it will be a great thing to carry the first elephant to America.”

Privateer America warship War of 1812
Originally built as a ship for East India trade, the America served as a swift commerce destroyer during the War of 1812. Armed with 20 guns and 150 crew members, the privateer completed five cruises during the war, capturing 27 British vessels and valuable cargo.


Officer Nathaniel Hawthorne

Details of the historic voyage come from the ship’s logbook pages written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, an officer on the ship, and yes, the father of the famous American novelist, who was born eight years after this event.

According to the logbook, the America set sail from Calcutta for New York on December 3, 1795. Two months later, from Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean, Hawthorne wrote, “This day begins with moderate breezes . . . latter part employed in landing 23 sacks of coffee . . . took on board several pumpkins and cabbages, some fresh fish for ship’s use, and greens for the elephant.” Below this entry and written in large letters: “ELEPHANT ON BOARD.”

Nathaniel Hawthorne, Sr. ship captain
This is a drawing of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Sr., son of Daniel and Rachel Hawthorne.
(photo: Peabody Essex Museum, Salem)

The last page in Hawthorne’s logbook records the sighting of Long Island at 7:00 p.m. on April 11. From the times and distances, it is estimated that the elephant arrived in New York on April 13, 1796.

The elephant was exhibited in New York at the corner of Beaver Street and Broadway beginning April 23, 1796. A clipping from a New York paper dated April 1796 reads: “The Ship America, Captain Jacob Crowninshield of Salem, Massachusetts, Commander and owner, has brought home an elephant from Bengal in perfect health. It is the first ever seen in America and is a great curiosity. It is a female, two years old.”

Sometime during that exhibition, a Welshman named Owen offered to buy the elephant for $10,000. From there, it seems the elephant went on tour for about a dozen years, primarily in New England, Pennsylvania, and the Carolinas. The elephant even made an appearance at the 1796 Harvard Commencement exercises.

Nathaniel Hawthorne documented the elephant's journey from India to New York in his logbook. Notice the large "Elephant on board."
Nathaniel Hawthorne documented the elephant’s journey from India to New York in his logbook. Notice the large “Elephant on board” toward the bottom.

According to reports, the price of admission to see the elephant ranged from a quarter to fifty cents. One must wonder if this could be the origin of the clapping game and jump rope rhyme, “Miss Mary Mack”:

Miss Mary Mack, Mack, Mack
All dressed in black, black, black
With silver buttons, buttons, buttons
All down her back, back, back.
She asked her mother, mother, mother
For fifty cents, cents, cents
To see the elephant, elephant, elephant
Climb up the fence, fence, fence.

The Elephant Lived on Beer

Cheers Elephant, a psychedelic pop rock quartet from Philadelphia, based the name of their band on the story of the elephant. They even wrote a song called Captain Crowninshield, which they recorded on their album, “Man Is Nature.”

Cheers Elephant, a psychedelic pop rock quartet from Philadelphia, based the name of their band on the story of the elephant. They even wrote a song called Captain Crowninshield, which they recorded on their album, “Man Is Nature.”
Cheers Elephant, a psychedelic pop rock quartet from Philadelphia, based the name of their band on the story of the elephant. They even wrote a song called Captain Crowninshield, which they recorded on their album, “Man Is Nature.”

As the story goes, the America was reportedly understaffed and under-stocked. Halfway through their trip, Crowninshield and his crew ran out of clean drinking water and were forced to give the elephant a dark ale, or porter, which is a heavy liquor made with browned malt.

Other stories report that Crowninshield charged his New York spectators 25 cents to watch the elephant uncork and drink the dark beer. According to Robert W.G. Vail, librarian of the American Antiquarian Society, the elephant uncorked the bottles with her trunk and would consume 30 bottles of porter a day.

The last recorded exhibition of the elephant is was in York, Pennsylvania, on July 25 and 25, 1818.

If you enjoyed this elephant tale, you may also enjoy reading about the elephants that escaped from the Ruhe Wild Animal Farm in Woodside, Queens in 1905.

Early 1900s: When the Waldorf-Astoria Went to the Dogs

Posted: 16th March 2013 by The Hatching Cat in Dog Tails
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A True Story of Pampered Pets and Titanic Survivors

The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on 5th Avenue in New York
The original Waldorf-Astoria was located on the Fifth Avenue site of the Empire State Building. It started as two hotels: one owned by William Waldorf Astor, opened in 1893, and the other owned by his cousin, John Jacob Astor IV, called the Astoria Hotel, which opened in 1897. John Jacob Astor died on the Titanic in 1912; incidentally, the investigation into the sinking of the Titanic was held at Waldorf-Astoria.

In the late 19th century and early 1900s, New York City’s acclaimed Waldorf-Astoria Hotel was the site of numerous pedigree dog shows. The first French Bulldog show took place at the luxury hotel in 1898, which, according to the French Bulldog Club of America, secured the breed’s reputation as “a high-society dog.”

The Toy Spaniel Club of America also hosted its annual shows at the Waldorf-Astoria, which attracted dog fanciers from such celebrated kennels as the Nellcote, Dreamwold, Ashton, and Crestwood.

James Mortimer, a renowned dog show judge and bench show superintendent, was often the judge at these lavish events.

Following the Toy Spaniel Club of America’s second annual show at the Waldorf-Astoria in 1904, The New York Times wrote: “These pampered pets are the real aristocrats of the world of dogs…the display is enough to put an ordinary dog to shame and cause it to become green with envy.”

James Mortimer, dog show judge, Best in Show trophy. He often judged dog shows at the Waldorf-Astoria.
James Mortimer (1842-1915), was prominent in the kennel circles of the United States and Canada. The James Mortimer Memorial Sterling Silver Trophy first went into competition in 1917. This trophy is awarded by the Westminster Kennel Club for Best in Show, American bred; for permanent possession, one must win Best in Show five times.

According to the article, the show dogs dined from silver cups elaborately engraved with their initials, rested on Roman silk cushions in elaborate French-plate glass kennels, and dined on specially prepared meals.

The New York Daily Tribune also covered the event at the Waldorf-Astoria, noting that the show owed its success to Mrs. Goldenberg, the kennel club’s secretary. Mrs. Goldenberg, the paper reported, “was on hand in a black cloth dress with pleated skirt, the bodice cut away at the neck to show a Val guimpe and a line of pale nasturtiums.”

Mrs. Goldenberg told the reporter, “The popular response has been very cordial, and of course, I am greatly pleased at it.”

Kennel club Secretary and Her Husband Survive the Titanic

Samuel L. Goldenberg, Titanic survivor, judge at Waldorf-Astoria dog show.
Samuel L. Goldenberg, an international dog show judge, survived the Titanic with his wife Nella, who was secretary of the Toy Spaniel Club of America.

I originally intended this story to focus on the elaborate dog shows at the Waldorf-Astoria…but then I started digging into the history of the Toy Spaniel Club of America.

It turns out that Nella Goldenberg (nee Wiggins), was one of the survivors of the Titanic in April 1912. Her husband, Samuel, who was a director for Goldenberg Brothers & Co. on Fifth Avenue and an international dog show judge, also survived.

Mr. and Mrs. Goldenberg lived in Riverdale-on-Hudson, New York, where they had a kennel, Nellcote Kennels. They moved to Paris in 1905, but continued to attend dog shows in New York and crossed the Atlantic about three times a year.

On April 10, 1912, the Goldenbergs embarked the Titanic in Cherbourg as first-class passengers and occupied cabin 92 on the C deck. (Mr. and Mrs. John Jacob Astor IV and their dog, an Airedale named Kitty, occupied cabins 62-64 on the C deck).

The Goldenbergs were on their way to attend the French Bull Dog Club of America’s show at the Waldorf-Astoria on April 20, where Samuel had agreed to be one of the judges.

John Jacob Astor and dog Kitty
John Jacob Astor IV, wife Madeleine, and Kitty their beloved dog.

On the night the Titanic struck the iceberg, the Goldenbergs boarded lifeboat 5. An article in the “Kennel Gazette” from May 1912 states that Mr. Goldenberg refused to board the lifeboat with his wife, and when the boat was launched she cried out to him to say good-bye.

Because there were apparently no other women passengers nearby and the boat wasn’t full, J. Bruce Ismay and one of the officers tossed Samuel into the lifeboat.

The starboard lifeboat was lowered at approximately 12.45 a.m. with about 34 people — mostly first-class women, a few men and about six crew members, including Titanic’s third officer, Herbert Pitman, the second most senior member of Titanic’s crew to survive.

The boat was rowed a safe distance from the ship, and for some time, was tied up to lifeboat 7, as Pitman thought it best for the boats to stay together.

Titanic passengers in Collapsible Boat D, then partially flooded with ice-cold water, approach RMS Carpathia at 7:15 a.m. on April 15, 1912.
 Titanic passengers in Collapsible Boat D, then partially flooded with ice-cold water, approach RMS Carpathia at 7:15 a.m. on April 15, 1912. 

After the ship had sunk, Pitman ordered the boat be rowed back to rescue some of the people still alive in the water; unfortunately, the passengers in the boat discouraged him from doing so, with one passenger said to have said, “Why should we risk our lives in a useless attempt to save those?”

Until the Carpathia arrived in New York on that Thursday night, April 18, Samuel Goldenberg had been listed in all the newspapers as one of the victims of the disaster. On the pier, he was surrounded by friends who congratulated him and his wife on their escape. A New York Times reporter apparently approached him and asked him to tell his story of the disaster. Mr. Goldenberg refused to do so and hurriedly left the pier.

The Only Baggage to Survive the Titanic

Of all the baggage that was on the Titanic, only one piece was reported saved. This was a well-stuffed, brown canvas carry-all, about 3 x 2 feet. It was the only piece of luggage placed in the customs area, under the big wooden “G” sign. It belonged to Samuel L. Goldenberg.

Custom House Special Deputy Surveyor George Smyth said Mr. Goldenberg’s carry-all was the only piece saved from the wrecked liner. No one at the Custom House knew how the carry-all had been saved. When it was brought ashore it was dry and did not appear to have been in the water.

Mr. Goldenberg Explains the Bag

In a letter to The New York Times dated April 24, 1912, Samuel Goldenberg explained how his baggage survived:

When I left the Titanic I was dressed in my pajamas, coat, trousers, dressing gown, raincoat, and slippers, (not shoes). I had time to take two rugs with me, for my wife and for myself.

On reaching the Carpathia I was told that the barber had some toilet articles and other things to sell. I therefore made the necessary purchases of toothbrushes and other toilet articles, including shirt and collars; for my wife and myself a pair of shoes, &c. I then asked the barber if he had anything to put them into in the shape of a bag, and he sold me a brown canvas kit bag.

On reaching New York I put all of the remaining things into this bag, and this is the bag that was mentioned in THE NEW YORK TIMES. I state these facts simply for the purpose of not creating a wrong impression, as, in common with all other passengers, I had no thought of saving any of my luggage at such a moment, and actually did not save any.

Dog Survivors of the Titanic

Dogs on the Titanic
Of the 12 confirmed dogs on the Titanic, only three survived. Unfortunately, none of the three pictured here on the ship’s deck survived. Most of the dogs were kept in the ship’s kennel and tended to by crew members, so they were considered more as cargo than as passengers.

There were 12 confirmed dogs on the Titanic. Only three survived: two Pomeranians (one named Lady and bought in France by Miss Margaret Hays) and a Pekingese named Sun Yat-Sen, owned by the Harpers of Harper & Row Publishers (now HarperCollins) fame. The Astor’s dog, Kitty, did not survive.

Some say there was a cat with young kittens aboard the Titanic during sea trials. When the ship arrived in Southampton from Belfast, she was seen disembarking, retrieving one kitten at a time and bringing them down the gangplank to the dock. The cat and the kittens disappeared — one must wonder if she had a feline premonition that the voyage would lead to disaster and take away all of the nine lives she had remaining.

Titanicat (True Stories): Crisp, Marty, Papp, Robert ...
Marty Crisp wrote a delightful children’s book about the Titanic’s ship cat.

If you enjoyed this story, click here for another true animal tale about the Titanic.

1897: The Cat that Christened the New York City Post Office Pneumatic Mail Tubes

Posted: 10th March 2013 by The Hatching Cat in Featured Felines
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The pneumatic tube system was first used to deliver mail from the General Post Office to the Produce Exchange Post Office, shown here. In the foreground are 25-pound canisters used to transport the mail and other items, including, on occasions, live animals.

From 1897 to 1953, the New York City Post office used an intricate pneumatic tube system to move mail across the city. At the peak of its operation, the tubes carried around 95,000 letters a day, which was about 30% of all the mail routed daily in New York City.

Put into operation by the New York Mail and Newspaper Transportation Company (a subsidiary of the American Pneumatic Service Company), the 27-mile system connected 22 post offices in Manhattan and the General Post Office in Brooklyn. The cast-iron tubes ran 4 to 12 feet underground; in some places they ran along the NYC subway IRT tunnels along the Lexington Avenue line (4, 5 and 6 trains).

The system used 25-pound steel cylinders that were 21 inches long and 7 inches in diameter to transport first-class letters as well as second-, third-, and fourth-class items such as clothing and books. The canisters were shot through the 8-inch diameter tubes via air pressure at a rate of 35 miles per hour.

Founded in 1861, the Produce Exchange served a nationwide network of produce and commodities dealers.
Founded in 1861, the Produce Exchange served a nationwide network of produce and commodities dealers. In 1881, work was begun to construct George B. Post’s Produce Exchange building at No. 2 Broadway, across from Bowling Green. Completed in 1884, the massive brick structure had six stories centered around a double-height trading floor. The building was demolished in 1957 to make way for a 32-story office building featured in the 1960 American film The Apartment.

It took about 1½ minutes to make the one-way trip from the General Post Office at Broadway and Park Row in City Hall Park to the Produce Exchange building by Bowling Green – a distance of three-quarters of a mile.

According to postal supervisor Howard Wallace Connelly, on October 7, 1897, a ceremonial demonstration took place at the General Post Office to celebrate the new pneumatic tube system. Senator Chauncey M. Depew was Master of Ceremonies.

New York Post Office pneumatic tube canister
The New York Post Office pneumatic tube system used 25-pound steel cylinders that were 21 inches long and 7 inches in diameter.

About a hundred friends and Post Office officials watched as the first canister arrived from Station P in the Produce Exchange building. Inside was a bible wrapped in an American flag, a copy of the Constitution, a copy of President McKinley’s inaugural speech, and several other papers. Subsequent canisters carried a peach, a suit of clothes, and a live cat in a cotton sack (the cat was no doubt on the feline police squad of the Post Office Department).

“How [the cat] could live after being shot at terrific speed from Station P in the Produce Exchange Building, making several turns before reaching Broadway and Park Row, I cannot conceive, but it did,” Connelly notes in his 1931 autobiography. “It seemed to be dazed for a minute or two but started to run and was quickly secured and placed in a basket that had been provided for that purpose.”

One former railroad employee actually referred to the pneumatic tube system as the NYC USPS “Cat Subway.”

The old City Hall Post Office at Broadway and Park Row-aka, the Mullett Post Office-was demolished in 1938 as part of the city's efforts to beautify the city for the 1939 World's Fair
The old City Hall Post Office at Broadway and Park Row-aka, the Mullett Post Office-was demolished in 1938 as part of the city’s efforts to beautify the city for the 1939 World’s Fair

Other Canister Critters

According to Kenneth E. Stuart, author of “Pneumatic Mail Tubes and Operation of Automatic Railroads,” other animals reportedly sent through the tubes included dogs, mice, guinea pigs, roosters, and monkeys. Stuart also writes that at a demonstration in 1908 to celebrate the opening of a new tube line from the Broad Street Station to Station C at 19th Street and Columbia Avenue, a thin glass globe containing water and live goldfish was sent through the tubes without incidence.

And finally, there is the story of a sick cat that was rushed by its owner to an animal hospital via the pneumatic tube. Postal employees say the cat leaped from the open container and put up quite an effort before finally being captured. Can you blame the poor thing?

Check out the short video below to get a brief idea of what that cat and the other critters lived through — the ASPCA would never allow such cruelty today!

1931: The Wink That Saved Pinky the Cat at the West Side Magistrates Court

Posted: 4th March 2013 by The Hatching Cat in Cats in the Mews, Featured Felines
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Pinky with Frances Borrah at the West Side Magistrates Court.
Pinky with Frances Borrah at the West Side Magistrates Court.

In 1894, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) agreed to take over the care and control of New York City’s dogs and cats. In order to empower the ASPCA with this authority, a special law was passed in Albany, titled New York Code – Lost and Strayed Animals (Chapter 115 of the Laws of 1894): “An Act for the Better Protection of Lose and Strayed Animals.”

According to the law, any dog or cat found within the city limits without a collar bearing its name and owner’s residence could be seized and disposed of if not redeemed within 48 hours. If someone claimed the dog or cat seized under the law, he or she could retrieve the animal for the sum of $3 – provided he or she could prove ownership.

If a dog or cat was not claimed, the ASPCA would euthanize it via a gas chamber. This sounds cruel today, but prior to 1894 stray animals in New York City were rounded up, put in cages, and lowered into rivers or ponds to drown. In fact, prior to the ASPCA taking charge, dog-catchers were paid by the dog, not the hour, and so some dog-catchers would steal animals from their owners’ yards.

Therapy bar Hell's Kitchen
Today the lot on West 52nd Street where Pinky the alley cat once resided features a parking lot. Next door is Therapy, pictured here, one of the many gay bars in the area.

Fast-forward to March 11, 1931. The scene is the second-floor courtroom at the West Side Magistrates Court, located at 314 West 54th Street, between Eighth and Ninth Avenues on the outskirts of the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood. Magistrate Michael A. Ford is presiding.

In the early 1900s, magistrates in New York presided over cases involving misdemeanors or violations of ordinances. On this particular day, the ordinance violation concerned a stray alley cat named Pinky, who appeared at the West Side Magistrates Court.

According to the story, Pinky had been seized by the ASPCA and may have been headed to the gas chamber when John Bonner and Frances Borrah of 354 West 52nd Street each came forth to claim ownership.

“He’s my cat. I’ll show you,” Bonner told Magistrate Ford. The cat, wrapped in a blanket with a red ribbon and an ornamental chain, was placed on the floor. Bonner made a loop with arms and told the cat to jump. The cat simply yawned and began washing his face.

Mrs. Borrah’s daughter than took her turn to prove ownership of the cat. “Pinky, wink at the judge!” she commanded. The cat turned his head toward the magistrate and “executed an unmistakable wink” by closing one eye.

“My, my,” Ford replied. “It’s your cat,” he ruled.

The old West Side Magistrates Court at 314 West 54th Street is now home to the Midtown Community Court. The building still bears its terra cotta visions of justice.
The old West Side Magistrates Court at 314 West 54th Street is now home to the Midtown Community Court. The building still bears its terra cotta visions of justice.

The West Side Magistrates Court

In 1930, Mildred Adams wrote about the “endless drama” in the West Side Magistrates Court in The New York Times:

“To the bar come the common woes of common people, a constant stream of human trouble. ..day after day, week after week, [there is] a demand for decision, patience, and wisdom.”

Formerly part of the Police Justice Courts of the 1880s, the Seventh District Magistrates Court—more popularly known as the West Side Court—was built in 1894. The Renaissance Revival building was designed by architect John H. Duncan. Click here for a street view of the building today.

By the early 1960s, local magistrate’s courts were viewed as being too lenient, as virtually everyone involved in the proceedings were neighbors. West Side Magistrates Court and its counterparts in other neighborhoods were consolidated and moved downtown to Centre Street.

Architect John H. Duncan
Architect John Hemingway Duncan (1855–1929) was better known at the turn of the 20th century for the Soldier’s and Sailor’s Memorial Arch at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn and the General Grant National Memorial in Riverside Park.

In the 1970s, the old court building on W. 54th Street was known as the Court House Cultural Center and was occupied by the American Theater of Actors and The Children’s Museum of New York. The building was designated a Landmark Site by the Landmarks Preservation Commission on June 6, 1989.

In their decision, the Commission wrote: “The legal proceedings that occurred in the courthouse played an integral role in the social history of the heavily-populated West Side of Manhattan.”

Midtown Community Court

Today the building houses the Midtown Community Court, an innovative municipal court that focuses on quality-of-life offenses and sentences low-level offenders like prostitutes and shoplifters to pay back the neighborhood through community service.

The fourth floor of the building is still home to the American Theater of Actors, Sargent Theatre, a small off-Broadway venue with seating for 65 patrons. Among the actors who have worked here are Dennis Quaid, Bruce Willis, and Kevin Spacey.

1903: C.K.G. Billings’ $50K Horseback Dinner at Louis Sherry’s Restaurant

Posted: 28th February 2013 by The Hatching Cat in Horse Tales
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The $50,000 bill for Mr. Billings’ horseback dinner included a photographer from the Byron Company to document the event. As society columnist Lucius Beebe suggested, “The photograph reinforced people’s belief that New York socialites went to bed in full evening dress after brushing their teeth in champagne.” Museum of the City of New York Collections
The $50,000 bill for Mr. Billings’ horseback dinner included a photographer from the Byron Company to document the event. As society columnist Lucius Beebe suggested, “The photograph reinforced people’s belief that New York socialites went to bed in full evening dress after brushing their teeth in champagne.” Museum of the City of New York Collections

Talk about the unbridled opulence of the Gilded Age. In 1903, wealthy industrialist and equestrian Cornelius Kingsley Garrison Billings opened a private 25,000-square-foot, two-story trotting stable on 196th Street at Fort Washington Road (what is now Fort Tryon Park).

The $200,000 stable featured stucco walls, a shingled roof, and 22 stalls (each with a brass plaque for the name of the equine occupant). The luxury stable housed about 20 carriages, 33 horses, a gymnasium, trophy room, sleigh room, lounging rooms, and living quarters for two families.

C.K.G. Billings horse stable
The New York Times called C.K.G. Billings’ trotting stable in northern Manhattan “The most luxurious and complete stable ever built.”

To celebrate the opening of his stables, Billings had planned to host an exclusive stag formal dinner at the stable, catered by well-known restaurateur and “society caterer” Louis Sherry. Word of the dinner leaked out, however, and crowds of reporters gathered, hoping to see the stable and wealthy guests.

Billings quietly changed plans, and rented the grand Rococo ballroom on the fourth floor of Louis Sherry’s, a 12-story restaurant with ballrooms and residential suites on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 44th Street.

The ballroom at Louis Sherry's Restaurant
The ballroom at Louis Sherry’s Restaurant

When the 36 guests, all members of the Equestrian Club, arrived on March 28 at 8 p.m., they found the grand Rocco ballroom decorated as a woodland garden, with trees and shrubbery, real birds, a huge harvest moon hanging from the ceiling, and sod on the floor. The guests mounted well-trained rented horses and faced each other in a circle.

They ate from custom-made dining trays covered in crisp linen that were attached to their saddles. And they sipped champagne through rubber tubes from iced bottles in their saddlebags.

An attendant with a horse at Billings Horseback Dinner
An attendant with a horse at Billings Horseback Dinner

Waiters dressed as grooms in scarlet coats and white breeches — one waiter to a rider — served 14 courses. The menu that evening featured Truite au Bleu, lamb, guinea hen, and flaming peaches. Real grooms stood at each horse’s head to reduce the risk of tossed trays, food, and riders. At the end of the evening, the waiter-grooms brought in elaborate feeding troughs filled with oats so the horses could eat with their riders.

And how did the horses get up to the fourth floor? By freight elevator, of course! At the end of the evening, a vaudeville show took place to entertain the guests while the horses were lowered back down to street level.

Here is a copy of the menu from the book Their Turf by Bernard Livingston. The real menus were sterling silver and shaped like a horseshoe.
Here is a copy of the menu from the book Their Turf by Bernard Livingston. The real menus were sterling silver and shaped like a horseshoe.
Harlem River Speedway
Billings built his stables in northern Manhattan because he wanted to have his horses near the Harlem River Speedway, an exclusive dirt track for equestrians and carriage drivers. Built in 1894, the speedway was located between 155th and Dyckman Streets. Today it is known as the Harlem River Drive.

Forty years prior to the horseback dinner, the site of Louis Sherry’s was the scene of a horrific fire at the Colored Orphan Asylum.

Founded in 1836, the 4-story orphanage extended from 43rd to 44th Street and housed hundreds of African-American children. On July 13, 1863, during the Draft Riots, the orphanage was burned to the ground. The 233 children in residence were all led to safety by the matron of the home.

The Colored Orphan Asylum at 43rd to 44th Street during the Draft Riots in 1863.
The Colored Orphan Asylum at 43rd to 44th Street during the Draft Riots in 1863.

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