Posts Tagged ‘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 […]

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 […]

“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 […]

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 […]

The more J.H. Dolph painted cats, the more the public demanded his cat paintings. Soon he was known only for his cat paintings and nobody paid any attention to his human portraits or landscapes.