In 1866, the New York State Legislature passed legislation authorizing the construction of an East River bridge to connect Manhattan and Brooklyn. A year later, the New York Bridge Company was incorporated and John A. Roebling, who presented a design for a 1,600-foot bridge, was appointed chief engineer for the Brooklyn Bridge. Following a series […]
Posts Tagged ‘New York City History’
1883: Ned, the First Cat to Cross Over the New Brooklyn Bridge
Posted: 19th January 2018 by The Hatching Cat in Cat StoriesTags: Brooklyn Bridge, C.W. McAuliffe, Emily Roebling, Famous Cats, Harmony Hall, John A. Roebling, New York City History
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1906: Speck, the Momma Cat Who Saved Christmas for 16 Families at 27 Second Avenue on the Lower East Side
Posted: 16th December 2017 by The Hatching Cat in Cat StoriesTags: 27 Second Avenue, fire cat, Frederick Turkowsky, Henry Hellmers, hero cat, New York City History, Philip Minthorne
Speck was an ordinary New York City cat who led an ordinary life in Frederick Turkowsky’s plumbing shop at 27 Second Avenue. Up until December 5, 1906, very few people on the Lower East Side, save for Frederick, even knew she existed. According to a plumbing trade journal published in April 1905, Frederick was already established […]
1903: Bob, the Mummified Cat of the Grand Union Tea Company in Brooklyn’s DUMBO
Posted: 11th December 2017 by The Hatching Cat in Cat Mascots, Cat StoriesTags: 68 Jay Street, Comfort Sands, Grand Union Tea Company, Joshua Sands, mascot cat, New York City History
In the 1904 edition of King’s Views of Brooklyn, the Grand Union Tea Company building in Brooklyn’s present-day DUMBO neighborhood was listed as the “largest warehouse and factory in the United States for teas, coffees, spices, flavoring extracts, baking-powders and soaps.” By the mid-1920s, the Grand Union warehouse had 10 acres of floor space. In addition to a […]
1894: Snooperkatz, the Mischievous Silk Thread Shop Cat at Broadway and Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village
Posted: 17th September 2017 by The Hatching Cat in Cat StoriesTags: 644 Broadway, Anthony Lispenard Bleecker, Christian Gudebrod, Gudebrod Brothers Silk Company, Lorillard, Manhattan Savings Institution, New York City History
Christian Gudebrod, a man described as “handsome with a clear, pink complexion and a long, straight blond mustache,” was a prominent manufacturer of silk sewing threads in New York City and Pennsylvania. One of seven brothers whose family had emigrated from Germany to Connecticut in the mid-1800s, Christian was instrumental in founding The Gudebrod Brothers […]
1914 and 1930: The New York City Cats and Goats That Butchered the Butcher Shop on James Street
Posted: 31st August 2017 by The Hatching Cat in Animal Stories, Cat StoriesTags: Cat Stories, Ignatz Sethmeier, James Street, Lower East Side, New York City History, Oak Street Police Station, Old New York
Prelude to the 1914 Cat Attack In the early morning hours of November 4, 1911, a bomb went off in front of a butcher shop and coffee saloon on the northwest corner of James Street and Oak Street in New York City’s Lower East Side. The explosion could be heard two blocks away at the […]
