Diamond Jim Brady - Cartoon - The World February 29, 1908

Diamond Jim Brady - Cartoon - The World February 29, 1908



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1895 Electric Brougham – First Automobile in NYC – Diamond Jim Brady

http://nightstick.azurewebsites.net/post/First-Automobile-in-Manhattan.aspx

The vehicle was a custom built electric brougham  manufactured by A. H. Woods of Chicago. The automobile arrived accompanied by a mechanic named William Johnson—an African American man who knew how to run it and fix it. Brady immediately hired Johnson away from Woods, dressed him in a bottle-green uniform and gave him the title of chauffeur.

Brady had Johnson drive him around the city on five consecutive mornings between three and four o’clock, when no one was watching, so he could be confident that the automobile would not break down. Then he alerted the press before debuting his horseless carriage in the daylight. On a Saturday afternoon in the spring of 1895, William Johnson in his uniform and Diamond Jim Brady in a top hat, drove down Fifth Avenue to Madison Square. 

Crowds gathered along the way to view the spectacle and cheer them on. The new machine delighted the spectators, but horses on the road were much less welcoming. When the brougham reached the busy thoroughfare of Forty-Second Street at least five teams of horses bolted in surprise and ran away. After several trips around Madison Square they stopped at the Hoffman House and Diamond Jim went inside and ordered a lemon soda at the bar (he did not drink alcohol.)

The trip had caused so much disruption that the New York City Police Department ordered Brady not to bring the contraption out again during the day. This prohibition was short lived; within a year automobiles powered by gasoline as well as electricity were a common sight in New York City.

http://www.earlyamericanautomobiles.com/1890a.htm

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7 West 46th Street New York City - Former Residence of Diamond Jim Brady - Urban Legend

7 West 46th Street NYC - Google Maps

Many, many, years ago I passed this building and there was a plaque next to the front door that “Diamond Jim Brady” had lived here. The main floor shortly thereafter was turned into a Japanese Restaurant and the plaque disappeared somewhere along the way. I think also that the present façade is colored faux-stone designed stucco and not the original brownstone.

It is amazing sometimes the buildings that manage to survive in NYC.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond_Jim_Brady

Source of above text image -



3/15/14 Been informed by reliable source that DJB never lived here. A genuine but false urban legend. -- MM