Brooklyn's "Hell's Half Acre"; Brooklyn Dodgers (Sept. 3, 1895)

Bapopik at AOL.COM Bapopik at AOL.COM
Sat Jul 8 21:57:02 UTC 2006


BROOKLYN'S "HELL'S HALF ACRE"
...
I'm still reading BROOKLYN BY NAME. Pg. 51: "Sands Street once had the
reputation for being the red-light district of Brooklyn and carried the  evocative
name 'Hell's Half Acre.'"
...
I don't find "Hell's Half Acre" anywhere in the digitized Brooklyn Daily
Eagle. It appears that some pre-1872 material are now down on the Eagle's
website (see the announcement), but still, there is not one citation.
...
"Hell's Half Acre" was used to describe Chatham Square (in Manhattan) and
other places throughout the country, but I don't see Sand Street before the NY
Times article below.
...
...

...
_http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E04EFDA1E39F932A0575BC0A9659C
8B63_
(http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E04EFDA1E39F932A0575BC0A9659C8B63)
If You're Thinking of Living In/Vinegar Hill, Brooklyn; On Cobblestone
Streets, History Lingers


By DULCIE LEIMBACH
Published: August 31, 2003

In 1801, Jackson acquired some of the Sands land and built row houses,
calling the area Vinegar Hill to attract Irish immigrants. (Manhattan also has a
Vinegar Hill, near 135th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, another former bastion of
 Irish newcomers.) He also sold about 40 acres of his waterfront to the Navy
for  a shipyard in which many of the immigrants (including Italians and Poles)
 worked. At the time, Sands Street, which now runs through the Farragut
housing  project, was the home of bars and brothels, earning the nickname Hell's
Half  Acre.
...
...

3 January 1880, <i>National Police Gazette</i>, pg. 15:
<i>DEADLY DIVES</i>
...

<i>Some of the Dens Which Infest</i>
<i>Chatham Square.</i>
...

<i>FACTS FOR THE "FINEST."</i>
...

<i>Concert Saloons, Museums, and Other</i>
<i>Resorts Which Make it a Sort of</i>
...

<i>HELL'S HALF ACRE.</i>
...

...
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BROOKLYN DODGERS
...
BROOKLYN BY NAME, pg. 81: "It was around the time the team joined the
National League in 1890 that the Dodger name was introduced; likely referring to
the trolleys that swift-footed Brooklynites would agilely dodger, the moniker
Trolley Dodgers was born. (...) The unforgettable 'Dem Bums' was coined in
1940,  but it would never replace the now cast in stone Brooklyn Dodgers. That is,
 until 1957 when Armageddon struck."
...
On a re-check, I found  second citation for "Trolley Dodgers," also  from
September 3, 1895. That's almost certainly the year the name was  applied.
...
Also, "Dem Bums" was not coined in 1940 because I'd found earlier.
...
Grrrrrr!
...
...
_http://www.barrypopik.com/article/166/dem-bums_
(http://www.barrypopik.com/article/166/dem-bums)
...
(This entry shows how the text was mangled before I started adding the  "..."
between text.)
...
_http://www.barrypopik.com/article/847/trolley-dodgers-national-league-basebal
l-team-now-in-los-angeles_
(http://www.barrypopik.com/article/847/trolley-dodgers-national-league-baseball-team-now-in-los-angeles)
.....
....
3 September 1895, Warren (PA) <i>Ledger</i>, pg. ?:
"Trolley dodgers" is the new name which eastern baseball cranks have given
the Brooklyn club.

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