The Creamerie - New York City

O.K., I'm giving you 25 cents. What are you going to order at the Creamerie?
This is a little pocket menu from the Creamerie  Restaurant at 262 Bowery, New York City.
The pocket menu also includes an identification card on the back, with spaces for name, address, and birth date. Oh, and the birth date allows for any year that starts with 18__. There is also a space to record the number of the case on your watch and the number of the works. Did you know that watches were used for identification?  I didn't.

The other side of the card notes that the restaurant is open "at all hours." Does that mean it was open 24 hours?

Well, first I started thinking about all of the apple tarts and oyster sandwiches I could buy for a dollar. Finally,  I decided to distract myself from the magical concept of 100 cream puffs for $3.00 and find out more about 262 Bowery and its history.

I might have expected the history of any place on the Bowery to be colorful, but maybe not quite this colorful. The best resource ended up being the New York Times archives,  a fun ride on any day.  I found little that would tell me anything about the Creamerie or its proprietor, Frank Summer, but I did find that people from this address died often and in interesting ways.
Here are the highlights:

May 5th, 1869 - Plans were submitted for a five-story, "first class iron store" building at 262 and 264 Bowery. The lot size appeared to be 83' by 85' and was owned by William J. Gesner.

March 26, 1871 - The Chapel of St. Augustine, 262 Bowery, was crowded to capacity to witness the confirmation of forty individuals by Right Reverend Bishop Potter. The chapel appears to have remained there until at least 1890.

April, 1873 - L. Zellner, alias L. Cruz, who listed 262 Bowery as his address, was arrested for dealing in obscene articles.

1878 - Aetna Sewing Machines was located at this address.

August 12, 1884 - Joseph Gallagher, a 19-year-old waiter who lived at 262 Bowery was arrested for stealing watches and other articles of value from doctors at St. Vincents' Hospital. He was caught going through one of the corridors in the hospital in his bare feet. Gallagher had previously worked at the hospital.

March 13, 1888 - 60 year-old Andrew Jauch, who lived at 262 Bowery (Schirmer's Lodging House), committed suicide on this date by ingesting Paris green.


June, 1888 - A Tailor by the name of Bernhard Marks was attached by L. Schwarz & Co. . Marks had recently bought the business from Louis Corn and then had his name changed from Gambitsky to Marks. Bernhard Marks was one of four tailors who had failed within a few weeks.

July 29, 1888 - Edward Cook of 262 Bowery was in a boat with Patrick Byrn and Byrn's two children when the boat capsized.  The adults, who could not swim, were rescued by a  row boat, but the children's bodies were not immediately recovered.

1890 - Moses Rephael had a crockery business at this address.

June 13, 1890 - John H. Waite was taken from Schirmer's Lodging House at 262 Bowery to Bellevue Hospital where he died in the pavilion for the insane ten hours later. Doctors said that he died of starvation and acute melancholia. They believed that he killed himself by abstaining from food either because he thought he was mistreated by his wife or because he thought all nourishment was poison. They tried to administer whiskey and milk when he was admitted to the hospital, but he spit it out.

June 20th, 1897 - Frederick Konig, 21, died at 262 Bowery.
August 2, 1897 - Max Berninghoff, 68, died at 262 Bowery.
May 18th, 1902 - John O'Brien, 62, died at 262 Bowery.
August 6, 1910 - Frank Schultz of 262 Bowery was arrested in Hackensack, New Jersey, leaving the house of Frederick van Saun with a suitcase full of loot.

May 22, 1915 - Karl Schmidt, an indigent resident of 262 Bowery, died in Bellevue Hospital. Once it became known that he was actually rich, relatives appeared out of nowhere to claim an inheritance. Apparently Schmidt always left the house at about 8 and returned at 6, but no one ever knew where he spent that time.

The building that currently stands at 262 Bowery was built in 1920 and houses a restaurant supply business.

Streetcar Sunday - The Bowery, New York

The Bowery in New York was (and is) a colorful place. It was originally a road that connected the city with surrounding farmland. The name comes from the Dutch word for farm: bouwerij. It is the oldest throroughfare on Manhattan Island. Although the Bowery was originally considered a respectable area, it became known for brothels, flophouses, and cheap entertainment by the time of the Civil War.

New York was the first city in the world to have streetcars, and the Bowery line was the first line in New York.  It started service in 1832, with a car called the John Mason, named after the company's president.. The original cars were horse cars, but by 1888 some of the lines were electrified.

You may notice that there are no overhead wires visible above the car. There's nothing unusual about that; you often can't see them on cards even when they were there. However, this time you can't see them because the cars didn't have them. The streetcars in New York were powered by an underground conduit instead. If you look closely, you may be able to see the line between the tracks that housed the conduit. Only a few other cities, such as Washington D.C. and London, did this, because most cities couldn't afford to do it. There is evidence that it was actually less expensive than the overhead wire system to operate once installed, but the initial installation costs and difficulties proved prohibitive to most.

The Third Avenue El (elevated railway), shown above, operated above street level from 1875 to 1955. It must have been strange to be on the street and have a train running overhead. Not surprisingly, property values shot up when the overhead rails were removed.

Be sure to stop by tomorrow for what I think may be my favorite post ever!

Oh, and here's the back of the card.  It was printed by Illustrated Postcard Co between 1905 and 1907.

The American Dream

Here's a photo of my Dad in Rotterdam in 1953 at the age of 18, setting off for a new life in the United States.  With little money and no family in the US, he made his way with the help of a sponsoring family, the Karminskys. The Karminskys had escaped Nazi persecution by first fleeing Germany for Czechoslovakia and then eventually ending up in the United States. I have some Karminsky postcards I will also post some time.

My father settled in Chicago, joined the U.S. Army and was sent to Korea. After returning from the Korean War, he enrolled at the University of Chicago, where he earned an MBA and met my mother.

So, what is my father doing today - this very day, in fact? At the age of 75, he is competing in his 5th Ironman Triathlon in Kona, Hawaii. The triathlon consists of a 2.4 mile swim, 112-mile bike, and a 26.2 mile run (full marathon.) This will be a tough one, especially because of training interruptions in the last few months for two hernia surgeries and Achilles tendinitis. Oh, and one week before the race he took a header over the handlebars of his bike when a mail truck stopped suddenly in front of him. The crash broke his helmet and sent him on an ambulance ride to the emergency room, but still he persists. I'm not always sure why - but we will certainly do our part to support him with athletic champagne toasts. Go Dad!

Here is a more recent photo:

Today is Sepia Saturday and a great opportunity to get a glimpse of some fascinating family histories.