The Lipsius Cook Mansion – 670 Bushwick Avenue
The Lipsius-Cook Mansion at the turn of the century
It’s Monday, and very dreary in NYC, so we all need a little historical pick-me-up with a story that involves Brooklyn Lager, false North Pole claims, and mail fraud. As promised, here is the absolutely bonkers story of the Lipsius-Cook Mansion.
This house is sort of the gateway to the giant historic houses on Bushwick Avenue. The house sits on the corner of Bushwick and Willoughby Avenues, nestled right underneath the M train.
Firstly, the boring bits: the Romanesque Revival home was built in 1889 by Theobald Engelhardt, who loyal readers – hey mom – will remember as the architect of the Northside Savings Bank. JK, y’all, even I didn’t remember which building he built, but I do remember his silly silly old timey name. According to the Landmark’s Preservation Committee, who is much better at describing architecture than I am, the house is “constructed of red brick with stone and terra-cotta trim, features a dramatic, rounded corner tower that is a defining feature of the building. The high mansard roof with pilastered dormers, embellished chimneys and delicate cornice detailing creates a strong finishing statement for the twoand-one-half story building. The main facade is marked by horizontal string courses and moldings, including rough-faced stone that continues over the round-arched windows. The style combines elements from medieval and classical architecture; details from the latter can be seen in the formal columned stone portico at the entrance. To the rear is a two-story section with a columned porch and rear entrance.”
It cost $35,000 at the time of construction which lol is pretty much my rent in 2013.
That angel has seen a lot… poor girl. There was a bra on her head the other day. Not a joke.
The home was originally built for Catherina Claus-Lipsius, owner of the Claus-Lipsius Brewing Company on Bushwick and Forrest Street. The brewery was part of “brewers row”, the nickname given to the 14 breweries all operating within a 14 block radius in the 1890’s. Catherina’s first husband, Henry Claus, began the Claus Brewery in 1865 (it was also designed by Engelhardt), but, like a beer left out all night, Henry went flat in 1872. (He died. It wasn’t a very good joke.)
Catherina remarried Rudolph Lipsius in 1876, and the Brewery changed it’s name to the Claus-Lipsius Brewing Company to reflect both her husbands. Rudolph eventually also kicked like a keg, leaving Catherina to manage the brewery all on her own; which she did like a badass.
The brewery remained profitable enough for Catherina to build a grand home for her family on fashionable Bushwick Avenue. Probably the coolest thing about the first part of this story is that other than starting the brewery, Henry also contributed to the history of Bushwick… he came up with the recipe for Brooklyn Lager, which Brooklyn Brewery began making in the 1980’s and I begin drinking at about 4:58 every day.
Claus Lipsius Brewing Company Bottle Cap
In 1902, Catherina sold the house to Dr. Frederick Cook, and this is where the crazy hits the fan.
Frederick Albert Cook received his MD from NYU in 1890, after working his way through school as a milkman in Brooklyn. His first wife, Libby Forbes, died in childbirth in that same year, and Cook, looking for an escape from his grief, responded to an ad in a newspaper looking for a surgeon to accompany some arctic explorers. Which sounds like a perfectly normal thing to do. It would be as normal as responding to one of those Craigslist ads that’s like “Live for free in my SoHo loft! All you have to do is pretend to be a coffee table and let me do whatever I want to you all the time. Only Asian women need apply.”
The ad had been placed by Robert Peary (who would later be the sworn enemy of Cook) and Cook joined up in 1981-92 for the Arctic exploration. Cook was bitten by the horrifyingly dangerous Cold Places Adventuring bug, and went on 7 arctic explorations from 1893 – 1907.
All of this sounds pretty crazy, but not as crazy as I’ve made it all out to be. So here goes the real crazy.
In 1897, Cook acted as the ship’s doctor for some Belgians on an antarctic trip - on the trip was Roald Amundsen, the first man to reach the South Pole. On the way down, the group stopped at Tierra del Fuego, the islands at the very very bottom of Chile, close to Antartcica. There Cook met up with an Anglican missionary named Thomas Bridges, who had settled a farm among the rather hostile native population and had been closely studying the Ona and Yaghan indigenous peoples of the area. Bridges, who had no linguistic training, had spent between 20 and 40 years compiling a dictionary of more than 30,000 words and grammar points of the Yaghan language, and I imagine that he was very proud of it.
Cook “borrowed” it on his way back from the antarctic, promising to have it published and returned. But he didn't give it back before Bridges died. Cook stole an Indian language dictionary. Why? Who the fuck knows?? As we can see already, dis bitch be crazy.
Thomas “Poor Schmuck” Bridges
In 1906, (I assume it took Cook 9 years to read poor Thomas Bridges’ dictionary), Cook lead his second expedition of Mount McKinley, the highest peak in North America. Cook claimed that he was the first person to reach the summit of the mountain, and despite some people in his team expressing private doubts of this claim, most people were like “Hey, cool, good for you!” until 1909 when Cook claimed that he was ALSO the first person to reach the NORTH POLE and then people were like, “Um… wait a minute…”
Cook claimed that this photo was taken near the North Pole. It is unclear who is who in this picture. Life was hard before Facebook tagging.
Cook claimed that he and his two Inuit friends (totally not a racist.. he had Inuit friends!) Ahpellah and Etukishook had reached the North Pole on April 22nd, 1908, after being cut off by open water and nearly starving to death like 17 different times. Robert Peary, the explorer who had posted the newspaper ad that started it all, was confused by this claim because HE had reached the Pole on April 6th, 1909 (I guess April is a nice month to go to the North Pole). The two men bitched at each other in newspapers and courts until both of their fortunes and reputations were in shambles.
In the end, Cook was officially disgraced by a commission from the University of Copenhagen, who determined in 1909 that Cook did not reach the Pole, and the glory went to Peary. It turns out that Peary didn’t make it to the North Pole either, but he was probably about 5 miles away. Isn’t it ironic, don’t you think?
Robert Peary. I’m totally taking my winter look from this photo.
Cook's reputation was entirely demolished after all this North Pole business was fully over, but Cook tried to salvage it for a few years by threatening to sue any writer who disputed his claim. Cook sold the house on Bushwick Avenue in 1920, and moved to Texas where he got into the oil business in 1922. The year after that, Cook was sentenced to 7 years in prison for mail fraud (he overstated the oil prospects of his company, but I think he was just being optimistic!).
The trial judge in Cook’s case was a friend of the Peary family.
Ain’t life a bitch sometimes?
Cook and Peary on an arctic expedition. Frenemies.
The house has been in private hands since 2000, and as far as I can tell, people are currently living in it. It was landmarked this year, which is great – Landmarks status means that a building cannot be torn down and the façade cannot be altered in any way.
It has been rumored that the Black Panthers squatted in the house in the 1970’s, but I would be willing to bet that those who spread rumors actually mean that it was inhabited by people in the Nuwaubian Nation, a Black Muslim/Ancient Egyptian/aliens cult thing who currently have a house down the street today, and are the focus of our next insane story about Bushwick Avenue.
THIS SHIT is even crazier.
andulkaphoto
turnnoffyourmind
origamiaround
janainaart
areudirty
prguitarman
discoholicmusic
izzy806
