This house, in Ocean Hill, was built in the 1850s by Frederick Gundlach (1828 - 1909), a grocer. He lived next door at #167 from 1880 until his death.
In 1899, Thomas Furey, an umbrella repairman and apparently a well-known one, bought the old house from Gundlach, and lived there until he died. His wife Winifred maintained it until her ailing health moved her to Staten Island, where she died in 1930.
After she left the house, it was vandalized and badly damaged. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle took the second photograph to show its sorry state. They had some words to say on the subject:
If you are passing that way at the witching hour and let your imagination have full play, you may be able to hear again the old cry: “Umbrellas to mend! Parasols to mend!”
The Brevoort Houses now occupy this site.
Photo: New York Public Library; Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Nov 20 1930, p. 21.
