The Family "Homestead"

Ok, the title is a bit misleading. My family does not really have a homestead. But during all my growing up years the house my mother grew up in was somewhat of that for me. Not that I ever got to go into it. No, by the time I was of age to remember, the house my mom grew up in was not in the family. 

However, my mom's widowed maternal uncle lived a block away. Two of his daughters lived with him, also his brother-in-law. We visited them regularly. We could step outside and see my mom's house from the front of their house.

I last saw it in 2023 when I was visiting two of the cousins who still lived there. But today, I found out mom's house is gone. Actually, the whole row of houses is gone, from one corner to the other. Here's what the block looks like!

The house was built in 1899. My mom's maternal grandfather most likely bought the house new! He was an immigrant from Ireland. In the 1900 Census my mom's mother, her three siblings (two girls,
two boys), and parents lived there on two floors. People rented out the other two floors. 

(1900 U.S. Census, Ancestry.com)

When my mom was born, she and her mom and dad lived on one floor, and my grandmother's sister with her husband and five kids lived in the two-story unit. My great grandparents lived on one of the other single-unit floors. My grandmother's two brothers, now married, lived nearby. My mom was an only child, but she had lots of cousins in the neighborhood. Here are the relatives in the house in the 1930 census.

(1930 Census, Ancestry.com)

This photo of the house is from the 1940 NYC tax records:

(New York City Tax Records, nyc.gov/records, 1940 for 91 Fourth Avenue, Brooklyn, NY)

As I said, above, one block away is a three-story brownstone which my grandma's youngest brother bought in the early 1920s and where his last child still lives! She is in her early 90s. Her sister who had lived in the house with her since being born, passed away last year. They lived in that house all their lives. My mom was an only child and they filled kind of a sibling slot for her. I have always had a love of history, especially family history, thus this blog. When I was in this neighborhood, knowing I was where my family had such roots was always a wonderful thing for me...and now the next time I visit Brooklyn, part of that is gone...