KNAPPY KNEW YEAR
Some New Years Affairs Of The Knapps In Brooklyn & Mastic Beach
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BELOW FROM THE BROOKLYN EAGLE 1882 & 1884
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On New Years Day 1883 you could call on Phoebe ( Mrs Joseph F.) & her daughter Antoinette Knapp and their friends at the Knapp Mansion on the corner of Bedford & Ross. You can probably bet the Mayor and close Knapp friend, Seth Low would be calling after he recieved guests at city hall. Among the the most notable ladies recieving guests and more than likely singing for her supper at the Knapps that day would be Miss Emma Thursby one of the most reknowned opera singers in America during the 19th century. Emma was a lifelong friend of Phoebe Knapp.
Emma Thursby 1845-1931 photo taken circa 1880
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ACTUALLY ON THE DO NOT CALL LIST
Unless of course you are a frescoer or mechanic & wanted to get time & half for working on New Years Day!.The reason for the renovations to the Knapp place and a new home next door to it, were part of the preparations for the Social Event Of The Season just a few fortnights away in Feb. 1885.
Ten years later in 1894 Phoebe would sell the Knapp Brooklyn Mansion and move to NYC. Although it wnt through many owners and incarnations afterwards the name Knapp Mansion always stayed with it till the day it was torn down.
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MOVING RIGHT ALONG TO NEW YEARS EVE 1940 ...MASTIC BEACH
Well not actually, you can bet when this document for the mansion and remaining 3.5 acres around it was signed by Joseph F. Knapp on New Years Eve in 1940 and witnessed by his wife Marion they probably did it in NYC or at their Florida residence. Nonetheless it was the end of Knapp ownership of the Mastic Beach Knapp mansion. A name that stuck with it for the rest of its days (it burned down Feb 1959) and beyond.
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CHEERS TO ALL OUT THERE!
Marion & Dodi Knapp circa 1940