September 29: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
ON THIS DAY IN 1907, Brooklyn Daily Eagle columnist Frederick Boyd Stevenson said, “Four important food products of the household are poultry, butter, eggs and cheese. The prices of these products have gone steadily climbing upward for the past few years, although their advance in price has not been so sensational as in certain other foods. The price of butter and eggs depends a great deal upon the time of year. Eggs, for instance, are just beginning the season when their price will reach the highest. It is not likely that they will be higher than they were in December last year, when they reached 45 cents a dozen. Butter is about the same that it was last year at this time, but is considerably in advance of the prices of two and three years ago. And the indications are that there will be another sharp advance soon, now that milk is to advance. One well-known grocer in Brooklyn predicts that the price of butter will shortly be 50 cents a pound. The price of poultry is about the same that it was in 1906 at this season of the year, but has advanced considerably over the prices of 1905 and 1904. In the meantime, the housewife is asking where it is all going to end and how she can make the weekly allowances reach clear around.”
***
ON THIS DAY IN 1910, the Eagle reported, “Probably the only dwelling house of its kind on Long Island is the residence of Charles Straup, which is nearing completion on Walnut street, just south of Division avenue, Richmond Hill. In all its attributes but one it is an ordinary residence, modeled after the German style and admirably proportioned by the careful work of its builder, who is himself an architect of the German school. The only thing which seems strange to the casual observer is large, heavy sliding doors at the bottom of a steep runway, which leads to the cellar in the front of the building and almost under the front porch. But in these doors is the secret to the house. Mr. Straup intends to keep an electric automobile, and to house it in this cellar. He could not keep an ordinary automobile, which is propelled by a gas engine, there. That would seriously interfere with insurance policies, but an electric car, in which there is no danger of explosion by reason of no highly combustible material being carried, can be safely kept in the cellar without any more danger to the house than the ordinary wet batteries which operate a door bell. Nearly half of the cellar is fitted up with all the necessities and appliances for the keeping of an electric automobile, and although Mr. Straup has not yet purchased one, he intends to do so in a short time.”
Brooklyn Boro
View MoreNew York City’s most populous borough, Brooklyn, is home to nearly 2.6 million residents. If Brooklyn were an independent city it would be the fourth largest city in the United States. While Brooklyn has become the epitome of ‘cool and hip’ in recent years, for those that were born here, raised families here and improved communities over the years, Brooklyn has never been ‘uncool’.