Saturday, August 15, 2015

Where Were Those "Suspected Places"?

The mention of so many "suspected places" in the testimony of the police officers at Chief Cruise's trial inspired Gossips to head for the History Room at the Hudson Area Library to check out the city directory for 1922 and discover the locations of these dens of iniquity. This visit led to the discovery--or rather the confirmation--of an error. Brandow's, in 1922, was not located at 340 Warren Street, where Swoon is now located, as shown in the picture below, which has been used several times to illustrate this series of posts about the scandal of 1922. 

Rather, Brandow's was, in 1922, located at 330 Warren Street, which appears at the left in the post card image below, directly across the street from police headquarters, in one of the buildings destroyed in the Good Friday Fire of 1965. 

The clue that 33o Warren and Brandow's were not two different places came when Sergeant Kendell testified that "sitting at his desk, he could not see any person drinking in the bar in the Brandow place but could see the bartender serving drinks." Checking the 1922 city directory confirmed that a saloon operated by Albert Brandow was located at 330 Warren Street.

Dugan Riley, who was mentioned several times in the testimony of the detectives, had a saloon at 24 Ferry Street. 

The "West End" mentioned by Officer Carbine was the West End Hotel, located at 33 South Front Street, in the building that had earlier been the Germania Hotel.

Louis Englemyer had a pool hall at 30 Fulton Street, which was the continuation of Partition Street west of Front Street.

Virginia Dare, it seems, ran a "disorderly house" at 360 Diamond Street, now the headquarters of Operation Unite.


Edward Dillon, who according to Officer Carbine was one of only two people convicted by the police for violating the Mullen-Gage Law who was not a "foreigner," operated a saloon at 31 Warren Street, in Waldron House, which stood at the southwest corner of Warren and First streets.


Stanley Glass, the other nonforeigner mentioned by Officer Carbine, was the proprietor of Stanley House, located at 29 South Front Street, just two doors north of the West End Hotel. Officer Carbine testified that he and Chief Cruise "made a special effort to get this place" and had "spent their own money in getting evidence."

The building that was Stanley House in 1922 appears in the picture below, just to the right of the utility pole.

Courtesy Pat Fenoff
 COPYRIGHT 2015 CAROLE OSTERINK

1 comment:

  1. 330 Warren in my years and decades before me was Leo's Bar and Grill. My family rented both apts. prior to and up to the Good Friday Fire. Apart from booze, Leo, who seemed rather old to me in 1965 told me that 330 Warren used to be an opium den in its' very early heyday prior to the booze issues of the times. It was his words... I included this detail from him in one of my stories at my website. Booze was nothing... our gov't has always been the issue.. lol.
    FrancesDrabickWritesIt.com. Brandow at 340 eventually became Mahota's ... he ran numbers... always action as such going on back when... Hudson has a rich history, but now it looks rather dull...lol

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