Vexed in Park Slope: Summer Spectacular!

Welcome to Vexed in Park Slope -- a column about every day things that FIPS would have reported on had FIPS existed in the 19th and early 20th centuries. All stories come from the NYTimes online archives, so if you don't believe one, look it up. 

It's been a while, VIPS readers, but as you know summer is here and (if you're like me and hate hot weather) the time is right for ... staying inside and reading history of Brooklyn summers past.

It seems only right to start with the heart of Brooklyn in the summer: Prospect Park. The next time you're there, offer thanks to our Slope forebearers who, in 1866, fought to establish (in the words of the New York Times in July of that year) Brooklyn's "magnificent enterprise." According to the paper, our park would be "what Central Park is to us, this will be to our sister city" and offered the following support for the project:

Click to read more ...

Vexed in Park Slope: Valentine's Edition!

 

Happy (almost) Valentine’s Day, VIPSters!  In the holiday spirit I’ve rounded up some stories of love from long ago in Park Slope. If these historical anecdotes don’t get you in the mood for romance, or at least melt a few cynical hipster hearts of ice, I don’t know what will. xoxoxo

You know those Park Slope dates where you wander around the hood, popping into one café or bar, having a drink or five, and then moving to the next locale? And you know how sometimes one person gets so drunk that they dare the other person to marry them that same night, and then they do?  Because that’s exactly what transpired one night in February1907, when Eleanor Campbell (of 823 President Street) dared a very drunk Walter Stevenson (408 6^th Street) to marry her – and he did!

Click to read more ...

Vexed in Park Slope: When Animals Attack! Edition

NYPL Image Archive

Remember the Bronx Zoo cobra escape of early 2011? Of course you do. That story got more local news air time than 37% of all the murders in 2011 combined. Ok, I totally made that up. But I'm sure it's not far from truth. Let's face it, New Yorkers are more afraid of nature than we are of the myriad of frightening things that are just part and parcel of Big City living. So it should be no surprise that denizens of Park Slope have long been terrorized by critters run amok. For example, in November of 1921 a . . .

17! People! Bit! The Times reports that an otherwise quiet Sunday night in Park Slope was interrupted by a crazed dog who ran through Flatbush, Park Slope and Bath Beach (that's a lot of running!) biting people all along the route. The fates of those bitten by the rabid mutt are lost to history, but the dog's is known: he was taken down by a single bullet at the intersection of Smith and Carroll Streets late that night. I guess he was all bitten out by the time he made his way into Carroll Gardens.

Thirty years later, the good people of our neighborhood found themselves once again cowering at the furry of a tireless beast:

Click to read more ...

Vexed in Park Slope: Historical Foodie Edition!

New York Public Library Image Gallery

Welcome to Vexed in Park Slope -- a column about every day things that FIPS would have reported on had FIPS existed in the 19th and early 20th centuries. All stories come from the NYTimes online archives, so if you don't believe one, look it up. 

When I started putting together this VIPS Food Edition, I imagined I'd dig up a few vintage restaurant reviews, detail some especially appalling menu items (ok, I did spend at least an hour fretting over the concept of a "rum omelette," but I digress) and throw in a few snarky comments about typical New York Times condescension about the Brooklyn restaurants. Easy peasy lemon squeezy, right? Not really. According to my extremely imprecise and far from exhaustive archival research, the New York Times didn't see fit to review restaurants in Brooklyn until well into the 1980s. My self assigned task thus became "difficult difficult lemon difficult."

Click to read more ...

Vexed in Park Slope: Thanksgivings of Yore Edition!

 New York Public Library Digital Gallery

Happy (almost) Turkey Day, everyone! In honor of the holiday, I've dug up some very FIPS-esque happenings from Thanksgivings of Park Slopes past. So take a moment and try to imagine a time when, instead of worrying about overcrowded airports, appeasing in-laws and finding a big enough organic turkey, you could focus on what really mattered -- not getting typhoid. 

Park Slope Thanksgiving Anecdote #1 (Sad)

Before you head outside with the "ole' pig skin" this Thursday, give a thought to young Walter Rhue: a 16 year-old who, in 1896, lost his life after a post-Thanksgiving dinner football game in Prospect Park. Walter set off from his home at 720 Carroll Street (between 6th and 7th) after promising his parents he would just watch. 

Click to read more ...