Owning History Making Room for Controversy, Opinion, Rumor and Conjecture

Vol. 5 No. 4 Fall 2010

History Begins at Home. The Historic House Trust is a not-for-profit organization operating in tandem with the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation. Our

mission is to provide essential

f 212 360-8201 212 f support for houses of 212 360-8282 212 architectural and cultural significance, spanning 350

New York, NY 10065 NY York, New years of New York City life.

Room 203 Room These treasures reside within The Arsenal Arsenal The city parks and are open to

830 Fifth Avenue Fifth 830 the public. owning history Making room for controversy, opinion, rumor and conjecture

inside this issue, read about: Connecting the past to the present through controversy: reclaiming the environment around the Old Stone House, rumors at the Morris-Jumel Mansion Museum, gender rights at the Alice Austen House Museum, and immigration and domestic labor at the Merchants House Museum.

PLEASE VISIT WWW.HISTORICHOUSETRUST.ORG OR CALL 212.360.8282 FOR MORE INFORMATION

Printing of this news- letter is generously underwritten by Forbes sland Historical Society. I A 2010 recreation of Alice Austen’s “Group on Tennis Grounds, July 23, 1886.” Photographer Steven Rosen presents published quarterly a conjectural interpretation of Alice Austen’s original image. Austen’s family built a tennis court, and many of by the Historic House her photographs were taken during tennis parties there. They included a wide range of family and friends whose Trust of New York City. personal relationships would, at times, seep through the images. Some of these photographs, although they appear No part of this newsletter may to be impromptu, are in fact and out of necessity highly planned and choreographed tableaux. They include nuanced be reprinted without the symbols—the placement of tennis racquet, wine bottle, or cane, the angle of a hat, a shoulder slightly touching or permission of The Historic House a directed glance. These signs, seen as a language, give us clues for a fuller reading of gender, class, and social Trust of New York City, Inc. standards of the day. In recreating the image, photographer Steven Rosen magnifies these signs in the original ISSN 1083-379x. photograph to produce new images full of conjectures about interpersonal relationships in 2010. AliceAusten House Museum and Staten Merchants House Museum Alice Austen’s “Hester Street, egg stand group” (1895). Fall 2010 H I STOR I C H O U S E T R U S T O F N e w Y O R K C I TY H I STOR I C H O U S E T R U S T O F N e w Y O R K C I TY

A Note from he smell of a delicious dinner wafts Rebecca moved with Elly to Franklin D. Vagnone through Rebecca Lurie and her partner Brooklyn from their apartment in southern Manhattan when Executive Director Elly Spicer’s 1920s row house in Park Slope, T they decided to have children. Brooklyn. The brick house, built to house single They were drawn to this house people who worked for wealthier residents at the “He knows instinctively that this space identified with his This issue has been organized to test the notion after reading an ad saying that northern end of the neighborhood, now sings of it had three original Murphy solitude is creative: that even when it is forever expunged of authenticity. Is it authentic to tell the whole story, from the present, when, henceforth, it is alien to all the family. Rebecca, a volunteer at the Old Stone House, beds. Intrigued, the couple or is it better to frame the story in a way that may promises of the future, even when we no longer have a lives here with her partner, Elly, and sons Tyler, 17, came to take a look and found a exclude conjectural or controversial aspects? Our garret, when the attic room is lost and gone, there remains and Cameron, 12. house virtually untouched since hope is that in raising these more difficult topics, we the 1940s. TR U S T S TA F F the fact that we once loved a garret, once lived in an attic.” ————————————— The Poetics of Space, Gaston Bachelard open up a new and more complex discussion of house Rebecca Brainard museums and the stories they tell. Preservation Crew Member his issue has not been an easy one to In addition to these questions we asked: What stories do our historic houses tell that are relevant to Sarah Brockett produce. It is about stories – not necessarily contemporary culture? What stories are difficult to Manager of Grants and T about architecture. It, perhaps, begins to tell, complicated to explain, or nuanced in a way so Public Programs address the primary quality of a valued historic house: habitation. complex that an hour tour won’t do justice to them? Caroline R. Drabik Curatorial Associate To achieve this authenticity – paradoxically, we asked the question: Is there room in preservation for recent newspaper headlines begin David C. Mandel controversy, opinion, rumor and conjecture? Almost to suggest answers: Director of Education every historic house site that I have been directly • An 18 year old Rutgers student jumps off the & Interpretation involved with has the “old wives’ tale” about one of George Washington Bridge because he is “outted” Jonathan Mellon the inhabitants. I have wondered what things would as a gay man online. (New York City has about 5.76% of its Resident Engineer population in same sex households. This puts us in the top 10 “gayest” be like if we as preservationists actually owned the Rebecca’s quiet residential cities in the country.) Tara Kiernan rumors – imbedded the controversial and questionable street is just blocks from the • A toxic waste reservoir collapses in Hungary and Administrative Coordinator into our tours and stories? I wonder if including This is My Gowanus Canal and the old Meredith A. Sorin these ideas of conjecture make historic houses more floods 16 square miles of residential houses. At least industrial neighborhood Deputy Director intimate, approachable, and oddly enough – authentic. 4 people are killed and hundreds are sent to the that surrounds it—an area As I have done with most other newsletters, hospital with burns caused by the substance. (In 2009 now poised for change. An Mikel Travisano abandoned brick power plant I sent out an email to the house staffs for article there were 222 Superfund sites in New York State alone, and the Gowanus Architectural Conservator known as the “Batcave,” a ideas. I usually am swimming in suggestions relevant Canal was added to the list this year.) Nahn Tseng NEIGHBOR- former squat with powerful • The divorce rate is the lowest it has been in 40 Senior Architectural to the newsletter theme. Not so this time! Some of interior and exterior graffiti, years, and is still over 40%. (NEW YORK STATE’S NO-FAULT DIVORCE Conservator the responses I did get came with caveats: “we try to stands as a testament to this stay away from controversial topics” or “these ideas LAW, THE LAST OF ANY STATE, WENT INTO EFFECT IN OCTOBER) Rebecca Lurie transition. It had been slated Franklin D. Vagnone Captions by Tara Kiernan and are too far afield from our period of interpretation.” I • Deportations of illegal immigrants from the United for the development of luxury Executive Director Kim Maier, Old Stone House understood everyone’s concerns, but those caveats States hit a record high of 392,862 this September. HOOD: housing until the combined (In 2000, New York City had 2.9 million foreign-born residents, the largest impact of the Superfund were the very reason that I thought this issue of the designation and the drop in number in its history. Of these, 43% arrived in the previous ten years and newsletter needed to be published—nothing is as the real estate market. 46% speak a language other than English at home.) clean and contained as we portray it. I suspect that Photograph by Nathan On our cover: even our 23 houses were never as orderly and clean as Political battles rage as we adjust to these statistics; Kensinger. Photo by Steven Rosen. marriage and divorce rights, cleaning up our Top row: Leo Wyatt, they are now as house museums. Anna Catherine, Reggie This newsletter is conceptually tied to the three industrial past, and regulating immigration capture Resino, Sam Devries, preceding issues by a common goal – to provide headlines almost daily. In this issue we look at Shana Carter, Frank- expansive ideas for historic interpretation and to how historic interpretation can contribute to our lin Vagnone, Matthew question the traditional paradigm of historic house understanding of these issues. Karl Gale. Bottom row: museums. Nelson Santos, Richard Presser, Zahra Hashem- ian, John Yeagley, Vic- We salute our Corporate Supporters toria Arrington, Claire Rebecca is an active Rebecca loves her neighborhood, despite Vagnone, Alexander volunteer at the nearby the shadow of a dirtier past lingering nearby. Encarnacion. Styling by Old Stone House, where The subway is close, the schools are good, she teaches local kids how Victoria Arrington. the restaurants abundant. “Once in a while, to garden in carefully tended planting beds. Two you find some gems,” she says. Historic House Trust blocks away, this empty 830 Fifth Avenue lot awaits its fate as part The Arsenal of a proposed Whole Foods Nathan Kensinger's photographs of New York Room 203 project that has been City's abandoned, industrial waterfront have been NY, NY 10065 delayed indefinitely due to exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum and the Museum of 212 360-8282 brownfield remediation. Contemporary African Diasporan Art, and have been f 212 360-8201 Photograph by Nathan featured in the New York Times, New York Post, and For information on corporate membership call 212-360-8282. Kensinger. New York Magazine. http://kensinger.blogspot.com

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about the normally enjoy, like time off, vacation time and pay, the house we can still see call bells, reminding us B OAR D O F Author and sick leave. Some argue that domestic work is that domestic work at that time was a 24-hour job. d i R E CTORS ————————————— ————————————— inherently different from other kinds of labor and Since many of the Tredwells’ servants over the Robin A. Harper is an so does not need these kinds of protections. Others years were Irish, the Merchant’s House Museum Franny Eberhart Assistant Professor of Political counter that because domestic labor is different it offers a unique place to start examination of a little Chair Science at York College needs these protections even more. The law goes known part of the Irish experience in New York. Myra J. Biblowit (CUNY) and a member of into effect in November and is being considered a Although we know a great deal about the history Vice-Chair the Directors’ Council of the progressive model for other states. of the Irish in the United States from the mid-19th John C. Gustafsson Historic House Trust. Her Domestic labor itself is certainly nothing new in century on and there have been tomes written about Vice-Chair research compares citizenship this country. The Tredwells, the wealthy family that Irish immigrant maids, there is relatively little known Warning signs speak volumes about the current Lisa Ackerman and immigrant/immigration inhabited the Merchant’s House from 1835 until 1933, about Irish immigration in general before mid- policies in different countries. state of the Gowanus Treasurer were no different than most households of the 19th century, before the great migration waves resulting Canal. Once a vital artery She first fell in love with Bruce D. Dixon century in relying on domestic labor. How would from the potato famines. Further, we know relatively for Brooklyn’s industries, historic houses as a child Assistant Treasurer they have felt about the passage of this Act? How did little about the women who came on their own from today’s canal now contains when she visited them as a they treat their own servants? And how would their Ireland at that time. some of the most toxic Richard Southwick New York City public school young Irish maids, the “ubiquitous Bridgets,” as Historic houses can tell many stories. As we water in the country. Secretary student. they were known, who came to escape poverty and wander the halls of historic houses, especially one Deborah Krulewitch perhaps find fortune, have felt about mandated time like the Merchant’s House Museum, with its unique Chair Emerita off or worker protections? display of original furniture and household items Research drawing on census records shows that that actually belonged to the Tredwell family, we Suzanne Stirn Ainslie there were four workers at a time in the Tredwell reflect on the lives of the owners, the beauty of Adrian Benepe* household, all female between the ages of 17 and 30. the architecture and decorations, and perhaps the William L. Bernhard They were not-long term workers but took positions technological innovations of the house. But rarely Glenn Boornazian and then moved on. It is assumed, as was the custom, do we reflect on the activities undertaken that made Cleaning Up that once married or pregnant they lost or left their that house run. In these stories, we look at elite lives. Thérèse Braddick* jobs. Based on practices of the day, it is likely that And yet it is through the lens of the Merchant’s Murray B. Douglas the Tredwells employed a cook, a scullery maid, a House that we can get a glimpse of the lives and a Historic Landscape Arthur Norman Field parlor maid, and a chamber maid, each of whom interactions with immigrant servants who also played By Lisa Ackerman, Board Member Timothy C. Forbes earned $3–$4 per month (about $60–$80 in today’s a critical role in the development of the country. with an introduction by Kim Maier, Executive Director, Old Stone House T elling the dollars). The servants performed a multitude of jobs, A tour through the Merchant’s House Museum Photograph by Claire Vagnone. Charlotte Pickman Gertz W hole S tory from cooking and cleaning to tending fires, serving reminds us that immigrant domestic labor has Brooklyn’s Old Stone House once sat on the banks King’s County had a population of 5,740 and New Catherine Morrison Golden ————————————— meals, caring for the Tredwell children, and running been a constant in American life. Perhaps, through of the Gowanus Creek, where the freshwater inlet York County had 60,515 residents. By 1860, these Francis C. Grant III, “T” With the help of a recently figures had risen to 266,661 and 813,669, respectively; errands. Bridget, Ann, Mary, and Mary, the servants examining life at the Merchant’s House Museum stretched all the way to today’s Fourth Avenue. Carolyn Grimstead completed historic furnishings in 1855, would have risen before the family to heat we may glean some point of comparison and Dutch immigrant Claes Arentsen Vechte constructed in 1990, the census shows 1,166,582 in King’s County Ted Hammer, FAIA plan, the Merchant’s House water for the morning, light fires in the bedrooms, insight for understanding relations with employers, his farmhouse in 1699 at this site for its proximity and 1,850,093 in Manhattan. This gives a sense of Museum will open one of the and make breakfast. Cleaning, cooking, and serving expectations for labor and compensation, upward to the creek, and its access to the Porte and Gowanus how rapidly housing was erected and services grew Susan Kargman fourth-floor servants’ rooms followed, and the maids likely crawled up to their mobility, and immigrant incorporation for domestic roads. The Vechtes were wheelwrights, farmers, to accommodate the vast influx of immigrants and Regina T. Kraft for viewing. The museum has beds at the end of a long, exhausting day. Throughout workers today. and oyster fishermen, and used the creek to ferry new residents who were literally building the city and Kate D. Levin* used the fourth floor as a their goods to market in Manhattan. creating its infrastructure. By 1849, when New York Bells line the kitchen wall Jack T. Linn* storage area since its opening State authorized the creation of the Canal, Edwin C. in 1936, so no evidence of at the Merchant’s House arlier this year when Brooklyn’s Litchfield had already bought up large tracts of land Judith MacDonald how the rooms looked exists. Museum. Each bell rang Gowanus Canal was named a Superfund site extending from Prospect Park to the Gowanus Creek Paul R. Provost Fortunately, 19th-century with a different note to indicate which room the call by the Environmental Protection Agency, to assure that this would be a commercially viable household manuals reveal how E Richard Franklin Sammons came from. The bells were enterprise. these rooms were furnished. another chapter in the life of this complicated body Henry J. Stern activated by a small lever of water began. While heralded as the key to solving And it was. All manner of goods moved along The room will feature iron beds to the right of the fireplace Franklin D. Vagnone* (to keep the bedbugs away), the pollution problems associated with the Gowanus this 1.8 mile stretch. Construction materials, imported mantle in each room. Jeanette Wagner an 1850s coal stove, and Canal, many know that this may be amongst the most goods, agricultural products, chemicals, textiles, washstands, oil lamps, and contaminated and complicated Superfund sites in ice, lumber, coal, and nearly any item you can name Cynthia C. Wainwright a chest of drawers from the the United States. The complications run the gamut moved through the tiny waterway to be hauled Patricia Weinbach Tredwell collection. Together, from identifying the pollutants to the polluters. Many onto its banks, stored in nearby warehouses, and *Ex-Officio these objects will complete of them have been gone for decades, if not nearly a transported to an ever expanding population. As the the picture of the private century, considering the long history of the Canal, United States rapidly industrialized at the end of the space occupied by two of the which opened for business in 1869. 19th century, Brooklyn was a central contributor Irish girls who played such an The entire span of American history can be told to the rising economic forces in the country. It was Special thanks to important part in the family from the surrounding streets of South Brooklyn. the embodiment of the promise of the Industrial life of New York City’s 19th- By 1700 there were already flour mills, textile mills, Revolution and an example of American ingenuity century merchant elite. tanneries, and other industries along Gowanus Creek in harnessing resources of every type. Wealth and to sustain the growing population of South Brooklyn. power from these activities meant Brooklyn was very A look at the census reveals astonishing figures about much its own city before the boroughs unified to the population expansion from 1800 to 1900. In 1800, form the City of New York. It proudly boasted both

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about the (at left) Kentile moved to the Gowanus M anhattan (cont’d) in 1949, and had a thriving business ————————————— author thanks to suburbanization in the 1950s Morris-Jumel Mansion ————————————— and 1960s. As the dangers of asbestos Museum HHT Board Member Lisa became clearer, business declined and the www.morrisjumel.org Ackerman is Executive company was bankrupted by asbestos- 212-923-8008 Vice President of the World “Ubiquitous related lawsuits in 1992. Photograph by Monuments Fund. Claire Vagnone. Swedish Cottage Previously, she served as Marionette Theatre Executive Vice President (below) The land around the Gowanus www.cityparksfoundation.org Creek was filled in to build the canal. Bridgets” of the Samuel H. Kress 212-988-9093 The modern canal goes northwest from Foundation, where she Red Hook, under the Brooklyn Queens administered programs in Expressway, and up to Douglass Street Q u e e ns art history, art conservation, between Bond and Nevins streets. The ————————————— and historic preservation. Old Stone House once sat along the banks Bowne House Ms. Ackerman lectures of the original creek. Map designed by www.bownehouse.org regularly on preservation HHT intern Damion Long. 718-359-0528 topics, but is always especially King Manor Museum eager to speak about the evident to all. Yet for decades, waste and byproducts www.kingmanor.org wonders of Brooklyn. She is from mills, dye manufacturers, coal gasification 718-206-0545 a contributing author to facilities, lumber storage, and other businesses The Social Vision of Alfred T. Kingsland Homestead continued to find their way to the water. Kentile White, an important advocate www.queenshistorical was active just off the banks of the Gowanus Canal for making Brooklyn a more society.org until a few decades ago. Today what remains is an livable place in the late 19th 718-939-0647 and early 20th centuries. evocative sign dominating the skyline, but once Kentile was the largest producer of asbestos tiles in Lewis H. Latimer House the United States. 718-961-8585 In the 1980s and 1990s, efforts were made Queens County Farm a nod to to improve conditions in the Canal. Studies by Museum history Old Stone House credible local, state, and federal agencies declared www.queensfarm.org ————————————— the pollution so complex that it was safer to leave 718-347-FARM At the Old Stone House, new the water undisturbed. The risks and costs of trying playground panels for the Map key: to dredge the Canal and remove the toxins in a S tat e n i S l an d upcoming $3M renovation to Gowanus Creek, 1766 secure way seemed daunting. In 2005, the “Living ————————————— JJ Byrne playground will reflect Gowanus Canal In” section in the New York Times noted, “Some See Alice Austen House the historic landscape of the historic tidal wetland Venice; Some See a Canal.” Now that developers www.aliceausten.org Gowanus. The Vechte family contaminated area, 2010 are reimagining the warehouses and industrial 718-816-4506 emigrated from Holland in buildings along the Canal giving way to New York’s Conference House 1653 and built a house at an encyclopedic museum and an opera house before Lido, people have been decrying its tarnished and www.conferencehouse.org the intersection of the Porte Manhattan. Even after unification of the boroughs, toxic state, and calling for improvements. With the 718-984-6046 Road—now First Street—and the Gowanus Canal was declared the most profitable Superfund designation complete, city and federal the Gowanus Road, which canal in the nation and a headline on October 29, efforts are underway to clean the Canal, a process Historic Richmond Town was parallel to today’s Fifth 1922 in the New York Times announced, “Gowanus expected to take at least nine years. www.historicrichmondtown.org and Third Avenues. The Trust Tonnage $100,000,000 A Year.” In the last decade, the population of the 718-351-1611 would like to thank Borough As American industrial hegemony waned, Gowanus neighborhood has increased. Former President Marty Markowitz, Seguine Mansion however, the Gowanus neighborhood suffered. By industrial buildings and warehouses now house former Council Member 718-667-6042 the end of the 1970s, more than 50 percent of the artists’ studios, custom furniture makers, set David Yassky, and the J.M. commercial and industrial properties were no longer designers, catering companies, and many more by Robin A. Harper, Directors’ Council A series of photographs Kaplan Fund for funding the enterprises. The Superfund status may not mean an taken by Hal Hirshorn playground redesign. being used. Shipping gave way to trucking and the For more information on these waterfront industries that had been the mainstay of instant clean-up of the Canal, but it marks another recreates a lost record of sites please visit our website the servants’ daily lives the region were rapidly disappearing. Further, much moment of potential great change for a location that n the summer of 2010, the governor of New York State signed the at www.historichousetrust.org at the Merchant’s House of the port activity shifted to Elizabeth, New Jersey, has already had numerous incarnations: the Dutch Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights into law. The Act mandates vast Museum. Taken with a which could accommodate much larger vessels and colonists’ cheery Gowanus Creek; the site of a pivotal new employment rights for household workers including nannies, 19th-century camera, this could connect more easily to interstate highway battle in the Revolutionary War; home to waves of Ihousekeepers, and caregivers for the disabled and elderly. These rights include image of a female stoking systems. The Canal remained a contaminated immigrants; an emblem of American industrialization; guaranteeing domestic workers the minimum wage, overtime pay, a minimum a fire, the thick layers scar across the increasingly empty industrial a harbinger of deindustrialization and urban blight. of one day off a week, three days of paid leave per year, a number of protections of her skirt up against neighborhood. Now the Gowanus Canal is a hallmark of movement against sexual harassment and racial discrimination, and performing a feasibility the hearth, remind us how dangerous it was to from the suburbs back to the city. Today it is perhaps study be done to see if unionization of these workers is realistic. The law will As early as the 1890s, studies had been work in the home. It was commissioned declaring severe health risks to the most extraordinary example of hope for a greener cover an estimated 270,000 people, most of whom are women and many of whom common for women to be the community from the Canal and calling for city, striving to be a model for sustainability. are immigrants. If the Act works as intended, many will be lifted from poverty burned when their skirts improvements to ease the malodorous conditions and gain some of the worker protections that other legally employed people caught fire.

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she soon informed the young man that she couldn’t D i r e ctors ’ marry him and was going off to Europe with Alice. The Mysterious C o u nc i l for the first 18 years of their relationship, the ———-—————————— two women did not live together. Gertrude worked Kay Allaire as a kindergarten teacher and dance instructor to Brian Andersson support her mother and younger sister in Brooklyn. George H. Beane Her family opposed her moving to Clear Comfort, characterizing her relationship with Alice as “wrong Jumel Henry C. Blackiston By Carol Ward, Morris-Jumel Mansion Museum Mario Buatta devotion.” They continued to hope she would Madame b R O N x marry a man, which alone could give her legal and Diana Chapin ————————————— financial security at a time when women’s domestic he Morris-Jumel Mansion has been witness young woman, her family was forced to leave due to Alice B. Diamond Bartow-Pell Mansion partnerships had no official standing anywhere. to some important historical figures, allegations of running a “dissolute household.” This Jamie Drake Museum Alice and Gertrude nevertheless spent a great deal such as George Washington. However, term leaves room for speculation as to whether the www.bartowpellmansion of time in one another’s company, at Clear Comfort it was also the home to Eliza Jumel, perhaps the Bowen women were involved in less than ladylike Amy L. Freitag museum.org T and abroad. Finally, in 1917, when Gertrude’s mother most widely theorized figure in the history of the activities. The family moved to New York City where Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen 718-885-1461 and sister gave up the family home and moved into mansion. With few rights for themselves in the Eliza became an actress. She supposedly met many Donald Friedman an apartment, Gertrude came to Clear Comfort to Edgar Allan Poe Cottage 19th century, women essentially had to conform influential and affluent men, including Stephen Robin Harper www.bronxhistoricalsociety.org stay. Together Gertrude and Alice lived what Alice either to the virtuous “angel of the house,” taking Jumel, a wine merchant from Haiti. Stephen and Eliza sland Historical Society. I Margize Howell 718-881-8900 called a “larky life,” travelling often, and entertaining care of husband and home, or to the “femme fatale” were married and took possession of the mansion in on their estate not only friends who were coupled seductress. These polar opposites left little room for 1810. Stephen passed away in 1832 after suffering a Kenneth T. Jackson Valentine-Varian House as they were in Boston marriages, but also Staten women to show their independence or to become wound from a pitchfork. Rumors circulated that when Susan Henshaw Jones www.bronxhistoricalsociety.org Island high society. active members of society. This is why there is much Eliza undressed Stephen’s wounds to clean them, she Lucy Kennedy 718-881-8900 But in 1929, the stock market crashed, and rumor as to Eliza’s life at the mansion. left the bandages off, causing him to bleed out and Jonathan Kuhn Van Cortlandt House Alice lost everything. She had to sell off furniture eliza was born as Betsy Bowen and lived with die. AliceAusten House and Staten and art works to pay grocery and heating bills; she Joseph Pell Lombardi www.vancortlandhouse.org Alice Austen (left) and Gertrude Tate, life partners for her mother and sister in Rhode Island. While a A year later Eliza married former Vice President 718-543-3344 more than fifty years, had no legal rights to formalize took out a mortgage; Gertrude offered dancing Aaron Burr, notorious for his duel with Malcolm MacKay their union. classes and broadcast a series of “charm” courses Alexander Hamilton years before. Eliza Joseph Pierson over the radio; together they opened a public tea b R O O k lyn was 59 and Aaron was 77 at the time Dianne H. Pilgrim ————————————— rejected the term “lesbian” for themselves because it room on the estate. Finally, in 1941, they lost Clear of the marriage. The tables seem to Nicholas Quennell Lefferts Historic House was associated in their day with lower-class outlaw Comfort to the bank and moved together into a small be turned on Eliza, as this time Aaron www.prospectpark.org behavior and perversity. Had they lived in our day, apartment. married her for her social standing and Robert C. Quinlan 718-789-2822 however, when the stigma against gays and lesbians In the winter of 1946, when Gertrude was 75 wealth. Upon discovering this, Eliza Frances A. Resheske Hendrick I. Lott House has been hugely diminished and federally-legalized years old, she slipped on the ice and broke her arm, decided to put forth the first divorce in Gary Ross same-sex marriage may soon become a reality, and then was hospitalized with severe bronchitis. www.lotthouse.org New York City history, but Burr died Frank E. Sanchis III it is probable that these women, who committed It became increasingly difficult for her to take care Old Stone House the day the divorce was finalized. Eliza themselves to one another for life, would not have of Alice, who was five years older and virtually David Stutzman www.theoldstonehouse.org then used her status as the widow of the eschewed the term “lesbian” to identify themselves. immobilized with arthritis. In 1949, Alice had to be Joan N. Taubner 718-768-3195 former Vice President to travel to France They presumably would have wished for the legal and moved into a nursing home, and Gertrude went to and participate in salons she would never Gina Ingoglia Weiner Wyckoff Farmhouse financial benefits of federally-recognized marriage. live with her married sister on the other side of the have gained access to otherwise. Madame Anthony C. Wood Museum Alice Austen often recorded the lifestyles city, though she took public transportation to visit Jumel lived another 30 years, passing www.wyckoffassociation.org and passions of these “proto-lesbians” in her Alice often. away at the age of 90 in 1865. 718-629-5400 photographs. For instance, the picture “Violet Ward In 1950, Alice signed her few remaining What is fact and what is fiction on a Porch with a Friend” shows one woman in possessions over to Gertrude, declared herself a when it comes to Eliza Jumel? There M anhattan a masculine hat and tie, seated, her arm leaning pauper, and went to live at the Staten Island Farm are some clear historical answers, and ————————————— intimately on the lap of her very femininely dressed Colony, the local poor house. That is where Oliver Dyckman Farmhouse there is other gossip that might fit in well friend. The “campy” photograph “Julia Martin, Julia Jensen discovered her. He raised money by writing Museum in today’s tabloids. Women in the 21st www.dyckmanfarmhouse.org Bredt and Self Dressed Up as Men” shows the three articles about her, illustrated with her photographs, century have many more avenues open 212-304-9422 women wearing men’s pants, jackets, and ties; one and selling them to magazines such as Life and to them than Eliza did when she lived at woman holds an upright umbrella between her legs Holiday. In the last year of her life, she was able to the Mansion. And today, New York’s new Gracie Mansion in an overtly suggestive pose. move to a private nursing home. “no-fault” divorce law, which enables www.nyc.gov/gracie Alice never married, explaining to Oliver Gertrude survived Alice by ten years. The Tate couples to divorce without having to claim 212-570-4751 Jensen, the art historian and publisher who family knew that at her death she wished to be wrongdoing on one side, may give women Little Red Lighthouse discovered her work in 1950 and brought it to buried with the woman who had been her partner new opportunities to escape unhappy 212-304-2365 public attention, that she had been “too good to get for a half-century. But there was no legal or moral marriages, even while it might also drive married,” by which she meant too good at sports, recognition of such relationships in 1962, when they the divorce rate up. But perhaps, had Merchant’s House photography, and mechanics to appeal to the men were still widely regarded as “wrong devotion.” Eliza had the rights of property and access Museum of her day; nor did they appeal to her. Alice’s own Gertrude’s wishes were not honored: Alice is buried to divorce, things might have turned out www.merchantshouse.org Boston marriage with Gertrude Tate (1871–1962) in the Austen family plot on Staten Island. The differently for Mr. Jumel or 212-777-1089 endured for more than 50 years. The two women met woman who was her family through most of her life Mr. Burr. in 1899. Gertrude had been engaged at the time, but is buried in Brooklyn’s Cypress Hill Cemetery.

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M a k ing about the H istory Authors A ccessible ————————————— Lillian Faderman, an award- for E very one winning author, has published sland Historical Society. ————————————— I eleven books, including In 2005, the Trust began Surpassing the Love of Men working with the Parks and Odd Girls and Twilight Department to complete

ife Magazine. Lovers, which were both L an accessibility survey of named by the New York Times mages/ its 23 properties in order I on their list of Notable Books

to meet current Americans etty

G of the Year. Her work has with Disabilities Act (ADA) been translated into eight requirements for historic languages. Phyllis Irwin is a buildings. Several houses professor emerita of music,

already have some level Original photograph.AliceAusten House and Staten a textbook author, and a very of accessibility, such as serious amateur photographer

accessible routes, ramps, isenstaedt, 1951. Courtesy of E he photographer Alice who exhibits at the Spectrum entrances, interiors, and Austen (1866–1952) was the Gallery in Fresno, California. restrooms. Some sites, proprietor of Clear Comfort, however, can never be made an 18th-century Staten Island home fully accessible because of the hotographAlfred by T P that had been purchased in 1844 by

size and interior configuration 6: P her wealthy grandfather. When Alice of the structure, as is the case Alice Austen in front of Clear Comfort, 1951. Alice lost the house as a result of finacial difficulties in 1945; after about the was just a few months old, she and with the Little Red Lighthouse. her death in 1952, it fell into decay. In the 1960s, concerned citizens rallied to save the house from demolition. her mother moved into Clear Comfort Photographer We are therefore developing It was aquired by the City in 1975 and was restored in the 1980s. ————————————— because they had been abandoned by alternative curatorial plans Steven Rosen came to which include visual and Alice Austen and Gertrude Tate: Alice’s father. Mother and daughter photography after careers as text descriptions of the became part of an extended family, a jewelry designer and a book inaccessible areas. In other a household of six adults who doted designer. His decades of work on the one child. When Alice was cases, guidebooks showing (above) A 2010 recreation of Alice Austen’s “Julia in the fashion and graphic photographs and detailing the ten years old, an uncle gave her a large-format Martin, Julia Bredt, and self dressed up as men. design industries give him history of inaccessible rooms camera and showed her how to use it; another uncle 4:40 pm, Thursday, October 15, 1891.” Alice said of a highly developed sense of are available to visitors. A “Boston converted a second-floor closet in Clear Comfort into the original in 1951, “We looked so funny with those color, light, and composition. a dark room for Alice—and the rest is history. mustaches on, I can hardly tell which is which. We did He works throughout New Or, rather, a part of the rest has been it just for fun—maybe we were better looking men than York as a portrait, event, acknowledged history: Alice Austen’s remarkable women.” Austen’s original image points to a deeper social and theater photographer. issue, however. At the turn of the century, women had His love for theatricality has photographs, portraying immigrants at work and limited economic opportunities. It was not unheard of Marriage” socialites at play, capturing stunning views of rural exerted itself with a body of for women to dress as men to seek out better-paying and Staten Island and crowded Manhattan, have found a more liberating work. And more often than not, they work exploring modern day solid place in the annals of American photography. were successful. Photographer Steven Rosen asked the dandies and flappers. Steven on Staten Island She was one of America’s earliest and most prolific award-winning Drag Alliance performance group Switch and his husband Ray, a FO l l O W U S by Lillian Faderman and Phyllis Irwin women photographers and is widely considered an n’ Play to reinterpret the original photograph from a writer, marry art and text in a ON l i N E ! with an Introduction by Carl Rutberg, Executive Director, Alice Austen House Museum distinctively contemporary vantage point. Jack Kelly artist with a strong aesthetic eye. However, there is historic art deco building in ————————————— and K. James of Switch n' Play; Jo. Styling by Switch n’ Brooklyn. To explore his work Alice Austen was “outed” in 1994. An exhibition at members, between the board and the prior executive another aspect of Alice Austen that has generally been Play, www.switchnplay.com. further, visit him at www. the New York Public Library celebrating the 25th director, and between the Alice Austen House and suppressed from history—not by Alice herself but by stevenrosenphotography.com. Anniversary of the Stonewall Riots not only included segments of the public. those who have wished to “save her reputation.” It is relationships were so frequent in the eastern cities one of her more provocative photographs but also At the core was the word “lesbian.” Either she an aspect that bears discussion in these more liberal of America, where numerous women’s colleges had

TM stuck the lesbian label on her. Almost immediately was or she wasn’t. To me, the argument wasn’t times: Alice and many of her closest friends were New been opened and from which educated women went the Alice Austen House was thrown into a cultural very interesting. What fascinated me was Alice Women who not only chose to live independently out into the world of work, that the term “Boston Visit our website for a war. One side urged that the museum should Austen, her work, and her life. And it didn’t take of men but also to have amorous and/or domestic marriage” was coined in the 1880s to describe them. calendar of events become a center for lesbian and feminist studies much research to conclude that Gertrude Tate relationships with other women. Women couples of the era included the writers and the other argued that Austen’s personal life was the most important person in Austen’s life. In the late 19th and early 20th century, in the Gertrude Stein and her partner Alice B. Toklas, and other activities at was personal. A group called the Lesbian Avengers This fact, supported by hundreds of photographs, era of the New Woman, higher education, well- Amy Lowell and Ada Russell, Willa Cather and the houses. threatened to picket the house; the board threatened is undeniable. Yet when we stopped debating the paying careers, and social independence were Edith Lewis, Nobel Prize winner and founder of the to close it. “L-word” and started to talk about what we knew of within the grasp of many females of the middle profession of social work Jane Addams and Mary Become a member online! When I assumed the position of Executive Austen, the disagreements disappeared. Today, we and upper classes. It was not at all uncommon for Rozet Smith….the list is endless. a New Woman, who no longer needed a man to It was not uncommon for women in Boston historichousetrust.org Director in 2002, I knew of the controversy, but do not claim that Austen was a lesbian, and we do had failed to realize the damage it had done. not hide Gertrude Tate. Instead, we present what we support her or to make her socially viable, to take as marriages to live together 30, 40, 50 years—till death The argument had created divisions among board know and let the visitors make up their own minds. her life partner another New Woman. Indeed such did them part. Many of them would likely have

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