Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Jan 26, 1897

(this is totally random)

I am trying to find clues to confirm that the architect of our house was Henry Hill (the son, as in Amzi Hill and Son – the prolific architects of this part of Brooklyn).  I thought perhaps I could find  sales ads for some other houses by the same developer and look them up on Street View to see if McDicken (the developer) just kept building the same design (perhaps paying for it once and repeating it over and over).

In my search for Daniel McDicken, I came across this nugget of a personal ad. It seems as Daniel’s brother Alexander was having some  issues with his wife, and he felt strongly that he should not be financially liable. Turns out Lana McDicken’s husband was a piece of work. Newspaper articles note that he was held in contempt of court, while serving on a jury (basically for talking trash), and years later was also  sued for 10,000 (for slander). From the looks of things, Alexander liked to run his mouth quite a bit, and I think the tone of the ad above paints quite a vivid picture of what he might have been like. It cracked me up.

Who said you need social media to over-share?

(as for my fruitless search, all I found so far is a Neo Grec 4 story house on Monroe street. Thus far my theory is not panning out)