« Lots of Love for the Schermerhorn House Brooklyn Paper and Courier Begin Sharing Content »

April 27, 2009

Layers of History in Bedford Stuyvesant

421-Franklin-Avenue-0409.jpgHow awesome was the City section story this weekend about the couple who bought an old woodframe house on Franklin Avenue in Bed Stuy a couple of years ago only to discover an old tunnel whose contents ended up being a layered time capsule of historic eras, from the crack vials of the 1980s to pantyhose from the 1970s to the old liquor bottle from when the tunnel was likely built. At the very bottom of the heap was an old cast-iron horse from the 1870s. On top of that, it turns out the mansard-roofed abode was notorious back in the day for being both a house of prostitution and the home of Hugo Tollner of the "Gage & Tollner" Tollners.
The House of Much History [NY Times]




Posted by Brownstoner at 10:00 AM | Comments (17)
Categories: Bedford Stuyvesant, Historical

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.brownstoner.com/mte/mt-tb.cgi/9474

Comments

great article! i've been in that house a few times, they've done amazing work on it over the years, that's so great they've found such treasures inside it.

Posted by: Jimmy Legs at April 27, 2009 11:21 AM

I thought that article was just super. What a fascinating house. Who owns it now? Is it like a communal sort of set up? The article mentioned that ten people live there but did not say anything about coop or condo.


Posted by: mcKenzie at April 27, 2009 12:02 PM

Very awesome. I loved this article. The lede was very similar to a recent Forum post about a tunnel under a house and its possible purpose. Probably the same tunnel.

The Forum consensus was that it was probably a waterworks from an earlier construction on the property.

A man called Peter Coutts built similar tunnels in Palo Alto and Stanford in the late 1800s. I forget what they were used for -- either boundary markers or waterways. If the author calls the Palo Alto Historical Society, they know.

It could also be a kind of ha-ha, a narrow moat used in place of a fence that cattle cannot cross.

Posted by: mopar at April 27, 2009 12:19 PM

mopar, are you saying the narrow cow moat is actually called a "ha-ha"? i'm putting one in just for the name.

Posted by: Jimmy Legs at April 27, 2009 12:29 PM

Yeah. Definition from the Free Dictionary: "a wall set in a ditch so as not to interrupt a view of the landscape [French]" I don't know about French though. The English gardener Capability Brown was famous for using them. But Peter Coutts was French.

Every Brooklyn estate should have one. And a speaking tube.

Posted by: mopar at April 27, 2009 12:39 PM

a ha-ha is a hidden fence, set into a ditch so as not to visually bisect otherwise open vistas from one's manse. Veddy British. A ha-ha is not a tunnel.
This was probably either cold storage or a secret passage to some point where a carriage or a horse could await the person leaving (or entering) the house undetected.

Posted by: mcKenzie at April 27, 2009 12:40 PM

I have a dream: linked organic gardens in the backyards of Bushwick and Bed Stuy, repurposing all the stables for their original purpose, and convenient ice and milk delivery.

Posted by: mopar at April 27, 2009 12:42 PM

Mopar, count me in.

McKenzie, they have tenants is all.

Posted by: serpentor at April 27, 2009 1:00 PM

OK, serpentor. What shall we call it? Brooklyn Manure Society?

Posted by: mopar at April 27, 2009 1:11 PM

I thought people moved to the city to get away from all that manure stuff.

Posted by: mcKenzie at April 27, 2009 1:25 PM

Sorry -- computer snafu.

I just re-read the original post and the NYT story.

http://www.brownstoner.com/forum/archives/2009/01/mysterious_tunn.php

Author says the tunnel probably (but not certainly) dates to when the house was built (or earlier) based on the garbage they found there.

Is the tunnel in the sub-basement, or below it? The chute suggests it was used to load goods directly into the cellar, or to permit people to exit out of the cellar directly. (The exit though is more or less in the same area as a back door, so not really hidden.) The tunnel does suggest hidden storage. Could the shape have something to do with hiding something or someone behind a bend, blocking light, making the volume of the tunnel less appparent from outside, or going around something already in the cellar?

The cellar might have been cool in the 1860s since they probably didn't have a furnace until later. Ice storage? Incinerator?

Posted by: mopar at April 27, 2009 1:53 PM

Bat farm? The world's first indoor air conditioning system (ice cooled)?

Posted by: mopar at April 27, 2009 3:33 PM

Something for directing hot air, cold air, or sound? If it's a secret passageway, why end it at the rear of the house where the back door is anyway? Unless someone was moving goods or money or people in and out and didn't want the other occupants of the house to notice?

Posted by: mopar at April 27, 2009 4:22 PM

Fire escape?

Posted by: mopar at April 27, 2009 4:26 PM

was that doll creepy or what?
pure adams family -or rosemary's baby!!!!


Posted by: mcKenzie at April 27, 2009 5:02 PM

That article was beautiful, in a haunting sort of way. But then, I'm nostalgic for everything. How many people have passed through the spaces we live in? What did the land look like before we were here? What will we leave behind when we're gone? Whatever happened to the girl playing with that doll, or the horse? It really puts things into perspective...our lives are very small in the grand scheme of things.

Posted by: sixyearsandcounting at April 27, 2009 5:47 PM

So true and well said. I get very sad looking at old photos. Silly me.

Posted by: mopar at April 27, 2009 9:42 PM

Post a comment

Please be patient while your comment is published. It may take a moment.

Latest Restaurant Additions