Posts Tagged ‘New York City History’

Mrs. Elizabeth W. Berhm, a kindly widow of about 61 years old, had always devoted herself to animals. She was known in her Carnegie Hill neighborhood as the “cat woman” because her home was always open to stray cats. In her small, two-room apartment at the rear of 172 East 85th Street, milk and kindness were always waiting for any cat that needed it.

No doubt, then, the neighbors must have been shocked to learn that Elizabeth had almost taken the life of her own pet cat, Dunder, while she committed suicide.

In 1903, one of the most popular dog-and-cat dynamic duos of the FDNY were Dan and Nickie* of Engine Company No. 65. Forty years later, Chappy and Henry the pole-sliding cat were the canine and feline stars of the fire company. Here are their stories and photos.

When James A. Hogg, a professional rat catcher by trade, opened his new dog bathhouse in Harlem in 1903, it attracted much attention from the press. Sure, there were by this time several hospitals for dogs and other animals. And boarding houses for those wealthy pet owners who could afford it had also been around for years. But a bathhouse for dogs was quite a novel idea, even for a city where dogs were considered a luxury.

Once upon a time, a renowned employee for the Southern Railway lost a battle to a cat that had broken into his home on West 44th Street. This Southern gentlemen was a pro at catching possums, but he was no match for a stray New York City feline.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the first snowfall of the season in New York City was marked by a race in horse-drawn sleighs. Trotters of wealthy captains of industry, railroad men, bankers, merchants, and stablemen would race through Central Park, down Seventh Avenue, over the Central Bridge (Macombs Dam Bridge), and down Central Avenue (Jerome Avenue) to the popular roadhouses in what was then the West Morrisania neighborhood of the Bronx.