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The sleepy street, which is technically now a cul-de-sac, was not always so drowsy. At one time it bustled with rather well to do guests of color, musicians boarding at 145 North Street (then known as The English House, after its proprietress Minnie English), and later, according to neighbors, a well known brothel. It has had its highs and lows, and a quick perusal of deed records indicates a rapid turnover since the land was deeded from the head of the Wallkill Valley Railroad company to a series of owners. Since 1881, records indicate a transfer of at least 17 times!
Originally, the land, sandwiched between pre-existing neighboring houses, was a fruit and apple orchard with a right of way for the Wallkill Valley Railroad Company which then became the West Shore Railroad which Minnie English mentions in her ads placed in the well known NEW YORK AGE, a newspaper for Black Americans in the early 20th century.
The director of the Wallkill Valley Railroad Company, which seems to have had a right of way through the fruit trees, before the current edifice was constructed, was Mr. Thomas Cornell. The original owners of the lot, neither large nor small, but substantial for parcels in the village of Catskill, were Mr. Andrew and Mrs. Mary Delancey. As Cornell would have known the stops on the railroad line, he surely approached the Delancey’s about acquiring it, which he did in 1881.
In 1894, his estate sold the property for $1000 which in today’s currency would be about $36,000, a substantial amount in the 1890s. One assumes that the current house, built in what is called “Carpenter Gothic” or “Victorian Gothic” would have been constructed to justify what was surely much more than Cornell paid for the plot of fruit trees with a right of way through them for passengers to reach North Street.
The English House curved staircase which Bob Cole would have used to reach the Widow's Walk with view to the Catskill Mountains, lost some years ago in a fire.
A house at the right-hand side of the cul-de-sac is said to have been also the place where train tickets were sold. There are still the remnants of blue stone steps leading down to the tracks, where passengers would have waited for the train to stop.
From 1894-1904 the house was the subsequent property of members of the Naylor family: first William to Elsie, who, in 1904 sells to the entrepreneurial Minnie English, born into slavery in the south with a gift of hospitality which she turns into a prosperous business offering room and board to middle to upper middle class African Americans. We know that her business was highly prized as her ads appear in each edition of The New York Age newspaper, while many times the newspaper reported on the various guests, from New York City, Philadelphia, Boston, Albany and Washington, D.C who would visit.
Renowned guests were regularly published in the pages of The New York Age, a prominent publication focused on African Americans.
One of the most renowned of guests was none other than Robert Allen (Bob) Cole, who composed and wrote lyrics so well known that at least one was sung by Margaret O’Brien and Judy Garland (“Under the Bamboo Tree”) in Meet Me in St. Louis. He traveled to London and Europe with the Johnson Brothers, John Rosamond Johnson and James Weldon Johnson, so well known in the Harlem Renaissance. Rosamond’s song “Lift Every Voice” is known to many.
At some point, a Mr. Mims stays at Minnie’s establishment and meets, then marries, her cousin, Clarissa, to whom Minnie sells the property in 1915. This is not before, however, Bob Cole meets a tragic end in the Catskill Creek while staying at 145 North Street where he had come from New York City to spend time and visit with his mother, who was also a guest. The entire incident is shrouded with mystery.
The official version given by his friends who had dined with him and Mrs. Cole that day, August 2, 1911, was that they all, well-dressed from their early dinner, had taken a stroll to the Catskill Creek a few blocks away. The account they told the police is that, fully clothed, Bob jumped into the creek, deep at that point as it approaches the Hudson River, swam around, smiled, and sank under the water never coming back to the surface.
His body was dragged out of the river by a local fisherman with a grappling hook, prepared for burial by Deane and Deane Funeral directors, returned to Minnie English’s boarding house, where he was laid out all night in an impromptu wake, before being shipped back to New York City on the train for which his entourage waited by the side of the tracks.
One wonders and has reason to wonder if Bob is still somehow connected in spirit to the house.
The property at 145 North Street, Catskill, New York was featured in a 2023 article in the Brooklyn based BROWNSTONER Magazine: https://www.brownstoner.com/upstate/catskill-english-house-black-guest-house-145-north-street/
Well known chanteuse/historian, Lex Grey, who lives very close to 145 North Street, has researched the topic of early 20th century female musicians and singers (https://www.lexgreymusic.com/). She has found references to Catskill visits from well known minstrel groups such as The Foots along with the venerable Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith who were known to perform with The Foots. Where they boarded is still being researched, but they may have performed at the former Catskill Theater on Main Street, where Bob Cole performed in 1897 and later, with partner, John Rosamond Johnson, in 1901. Yale University is home to the J.R. Johnson collection which includes, notes, diaries and photos.
The very old timers in the neighborhood, who all passed away in the last decade, remember vividly that well-dressed visitors in top hats, tuxedos, and evening gowns, would alight from the train and make their way to the house. The windows were opened, the piano began to be played, and song and merriment were heard throughout the neighborhood into the wee hours of the morning.
Lex also gives insight into the development of one of Bob Cole’s best known stage characters, “The Tramp.” In it he used white face and a red wig to depict a white hobo. The North Street residence just happened to be across the street from an ancient ravine now shaded by hardwood trees, in which a hobo camp was located. Surely, more than a few “hobos” had descended from the trains which stopped behind the house, crossed the street and camped there with their compatriots. Their music would have drifted to the house, while their bonfires were surely able to be seen from the second floor and widow’s walk. One imagines the boarders at 145 North Street, including Cole himself, spotting the “hobos” making their way through the back yard, alongside the house and over the street, inspiration for an unforgettable character in Cole’s repertoire.
One knows from neighbors that the two-story house once boasted a “widow’s walk” to which the winding staircase led and from which one could view the Catskill Mountains in the distance. At some point it was destroyed in a fire, but the elegant staircase still leads up to the rafters of the roof. Will the widow’s walk appear some day on the edifice? Time will tell, but an interesting fact emerged while researching what design the widow’s walk would have had, as one find no photos of it to date. Heather Bizanos, research librarian at Vedder Library at the Bronck Museum in nearby Coxsackie, NY, stated that it would be easy to envision its original design. Why? Almost all the widow’s walks in Catskill had had the same design. In driving through the village, one sees she has a point. All look remarkably alike. Perhaps as the carpenters were the same, or the materials were all purchased from the same local purveyor. The speculations are endless, but the task of determining a “style’ has become easier with that information.
Acclaimed Catskill, New York artist, Barbara Korr Green (along with her equally talented artist husband, Francis Eugene (F.E.) Green, frequent guests in the Cus D’Amato gym photographing, drawing, and painting trainer D’Amato and young boxer, Mike Tyson), has painted a 7-foot-tall painting of Bob Cole, which will be unveiled March 8, 2026, 2pm, at a presentation at the Greene County Historical Society.
The presentation will focus on the book GRAND DUCHESS ANASTASIA: STILL A MYSTERY? by society trustee, J (Johannes) Froebel-Parker (histriabooks.com/product/grand-duchess-anastasia). Green painted the life size portrait of HIH Anastasia Nicholaevna Romanov, Grand Duchess of Russia, which will also be shown at the presentation.
In a sense, the memory of Sunset Boulevard comes to mind when regarding 145 North Street, Catskill, NY. Its former glory days are done, yet in contrast to Gloria Swanson’s close up to nowhere, the historic manse on North Street promises in its rejuvenation to surpass expectations beyond the wildest imagination of the original builders while simultaneously becoming a physical connection to one of America’s musical luminaries who will never be forgotten.
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