Collyers and Chinatown
Two interesting bits on New York history in the NY Times on Sunday. First, the oldest business in Chinatown closed last month. Sadly, it's the lack of business since Sept. 11 that closed their doors.

Mr. Lee's grandfather, Lee Lok, opened the store in the heart of Chinatown in 1891, calling it Quong Yuen Shing & Company. Although it was a few years after the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act, which barred Chinese laborers from entering the country, Chinatown was already a bustling enclave.

His grandfather sold medicinal herbs, groceries, restaurant supplies and silk brocade for ceremonial clothing, Mr. Lee said. But like other shops in the area, he said, Quong Yuen Shing functioned as much more than a store. At that point, Chinatown was essentially a bachelors' society because immigration law forced men to leave their wives in China. They gathered at the shop to pass the time. Those who were illiterate could get help writing letters home. Many used the store as a postal address. Safes were kept for immigrants because Chinese were barred from opening bank accounts. In the back, workers slept on wooden shelves.

And there's a new book coming out about the crazy Collyer brothers.

The Collyer brothers' saga confirms a New Yorker's worst nightmare: crumpled people living in crumpled rooms with their crumpled possessions, the crowded chaos of the city refracted in their homes. It's not that Gothamites hoard more than other people; it's that they have less room to hoard in.

and ...

Langley was buried in an avalanche of rubbish in 1947 when he tripped one of his elaborate booby traps while bringing Homer dinner. Thanks to my father, I knew all the particulars: how Homer had starved to death, how Langley's body had been gnawed by rats, how the police had searched the city for Langley for nearly three weeks while he lay entombed in the debris of his own house.

- posted by Amy @ 10/27/2003 04:12:00 PM