Posts Tagged ‘New York City History’

In 1904, an East Village man was charged with disorderly conduct for serving catnip powder to cats, causing them to become intoxicated in public.

Alberto Gaston de Bassini, aka the Chevalier, was a man who truly loved and cared about cats. He fed them, bathed them, and sang to them, and named them after heroes and heroines from famous operas.

In January 1901, the janitress for the tenement at 141 Saint Ann’s Avenue in the Bronx opened her heart and door to many cats seeking food and shelter.

From 1900 to 1908, the Dyker Meadow Golf Club had a mascot cat named Lillian Russell who was an expert fishing cat.

“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 […]