Living in a Cobble Hill Townhouse/Time Capsule
Talk about old-school. According to the cover story in this weekend’s City section, the house at 312 Clinton Street in Cobble Hill has been in the same family for five generations, and it’s filled with mementos (“collections of bottled fainting remedies, thigh-high men’s socks, and mint-green sales slips for coal”) and obsolete appliances, like an…
Talk about old-school. According to the cover story in this weekend’s City section, the house at 312 Clinton Street in Cobble Hill has been in the same family for five generations, and it’s filled with mementos (“collections of bottled fainting remedies, thigh-high men’s socks, and mint-green sales slips for coal”) and obsolete appliances, like an Easy brand washing machine built around 1940. The house was purchased in 1866 by the great-great-great-grandmother of its current resident, Nora Geraghty. Geraghty says the house’s collection of antiques and lack of some modern amenities have occasionally made her feel like she couldn’t “live a modern, normal life,” but that the way it connects her to her family’s past ultimately justifies the clutter and lack of some mod cons. The way I feel about my great-great-grandmother, says Geraghty, my great-great-grandchildren will feel about me, unless New York is gone by the time they’re born. Because in a thousand years, this place will never be sold. Are there readers who have been living in the same house as their ancestors and can relate to Geraghty’s reluctance to change her property?
The Ghosts of Clinton Street [NY Times]
Photo of 312 Clinton by Kate Leonova for Property Shark.
This was actually a wonderful human-interest story, and they did a good job depicting the ambivalence of the later generations to inherit the Stuff and the House. I, too, winced when I read about the hundreds of bags, which is insane, since I too have cleared out the archives of a third-generation pack-rat auntie and tossed hundreds of bags. At some point, if the job is big enough, you just start tossing things in a bid for oxygen and survival. I suspect most of those bags held crap, and the good stuff was what they showed the photographer. However, very old letters, cards and other paper ephemera are craved by collage artists and scrapbookers, and it’s nice to offer to freecycle them on Craigslist or the like.
Now, what made ME drool was the old stove…and the hearth…and most of all, their trove of bizarre family stories of death and dying (so like unto my own Irish ancestors, four generations away I can still tell you the manner of their gruesome deaths…)
“I came to know the house because my parents have known Ms. Geraghty’s parents for many years. Without the personal connection, her family might never have shown anyone their collections of bottled fainting remedies, thigh-high men’s socks, and mint-green sales slips for coal.”
Thank God for the Times writer!!
I can’t believe an editor actually approved those lines. The Times sucks my big toe.
Very weird.
If they are keep old advertisements and empty matchbooks, then their trash is TRASH!
Museums are very picky.
You cannot imagine how much century old junk exists in Brooklyn. Unless it is a rare artifact or it has a documented association with a famous person, like Walt Whitman or Abe Lincoln, forget it. It’s junk. truly.
exceptions:
objects that are signed by famous makers (Tiffany, Rookwood, cartier, etc)
American oil paintings.
Sterling silver (weight value mostly).
worthless or near worthless:
china settings
books (exept rare editions)
clothes and accessories (shoes, umbrellas, hats, walking sticks)
letters, receipts and journals (unless from a historical figure)
bottles, patent medicines, souvenirs.
Old kitchen and bathroom appliances and fixtures.
I am referring to monetary value, personal or sentimental value is intangible.
Threw out 100 bags of…. WHAT?! I can only think of the historians and artifact collectors that just died a little reading this. I understand they couldn’t keep it themselves but they should have contacted the Brooklyn Historical Society or other like minded organization. They probably would have been inundated w/people willing to clean the house for them.
I have the opposite of hoarder’s syndrome. I enjoy throwing stuff out and giving it away.
It gives me a sort of boost.
I thought this was depressing. They should enjoy that house. The are being held captive by old corset ads?
my next door neighbors have a house identical to mine, and i recently found out their family is only the second set of owners (house built in 1915, they bought in 1935). i have begun a schmooze campaign to eventually get in there and see what’s inside. so far all i’ve seen is their pristine main bannister.