Blossom Restaurant – 103 Bowery, New York, New York
Quiz #137 – Blossom Restaurant, 103 Bowery, New York, New York Bereneice Abbott
www.forensicgenealogy.info/contest_137_results.html
Since we posted this photo of the Blossom Restaurant in the Bowery of New York, Mark Ream has sent in some interesting additional information about it.
According to (http://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/GEO_GH.htm), [103 Bowery, New York] was once a tavern owned by Owney Geogheghan, a New York City saloon operator in the mid-1800s. His establishment…was one of the scurviest joints along that extensive and crowded avenue.
It was a hangout much esteemed by unprincipled beggars, who knew they could discard their superfluous glasses and crutches in that understanding environment, and it was so regularly the scene of gang brawls that Geogheghan, a thoughtful host, kept a large supply of police clubs on hand, to pass out among his steady patrons in the event of a skirmish.
This disorderly tradition was maintained right up to and throughout Owney’s funeral, a ceremony enlivened by the presence of two Mrs. Geogheghans, each of whom, unaware until then of the existence of the other, sought to assume what she though was her rightful spot in the funeral procession. All the way from the Bowery to Calvary Cemetery, two hacks bearing the rival widow Geogheghans jockeyed for a position directly behind the hearse, while their tearful occupants exchanged ringing maledictions.
(E.J. Khan, Jr., The Merry Partners: The Age and Stage of Harrigan and Hart, Random House, 1955, pgs. 130-131).
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Also from the Brooklyn Eagle:
7 April 1885, THE REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK
Incidents of Minor Importance in Brooklyn and Vicinity…CLARA ERNST RETURNS HOME
Found in a Bowery Dive by Her Father and Detective Ennis:
Clara ERNST, the 17 year old girl who disappeared from her home in Walton street, Eastern District, on the 1st of April, was found last night and returned to her home.
A young man, who did not give his name, went to Mr. ERNST’s house on Wednesday night
and said that he believed his daughter was in a dive at 103 Bowery, New York, where she was employed as a waitress.
He had read a description of the missing girl in the papers and was positive that it was she.
Detective ENNIS went over on Sunday night, but failed to find her. He went again last night in company with her father and, after waiting an hour or so, they saw Clara entering the place with some companions.
When confronted with her father she expressed penitence and consented to return home. She says that the reason she left her father’s house was that he was only earning $7 a week, and that this was not enough to support them both.
She concluded to go out and seek work and made the acquaintance of an elderly woman
who induced her to go to the saloon on the Bowery.
Interesting glimpses in to the history of what would otherwise seem an ordinary place today. Mark Ream
More cool stuff:
New York Times, January 15, 1878 – Jim Rose’s Statements to the Police about His Murder http://www.forensicgenealogy.info/images/NYT_1878-01-15.pdf
New York Times, January 15, 1878 – Police Inquest into the Murder of Jim Rose
http://www.forensicgenealogy.info/images/NYT_1878-01-22.pdf
