Thursday, April 2, 2009

The George Gogel Story: Part 2


Above from a 1889 directory. Marks' Gogel advertises himself as a laborer available for hire living on 60th Street on the West Side. Below in his 1898 Naturalization papers he's listed as a shoe fitter. Looks like he was a hard worker determined to make a living and move up in the world. 45 Leonard Street is in Williamsburgh, Brooklyn. There are housing projects at that address now. I suspect he came back to Broome Street in 1900 because he may have opened a business in that vicinity. Usually the trend was to move away from the crowded LES as immigrants needed a bigger living space for their families and could afford newer and better accommodations. They either used the newly constructed subways (to go to East Harlem and the Bronx usually) or the newly constructed Williamsburgh Bridge to go to Brooklyn.

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