119, 40th Street, Corona circa 1925 regarding John Wood d January 25 1927.

[brynjon]

Hello again board members.

I am back with another question about my family and their travels to New York.

My great uncle John Wood followed in the footsteps of his aunts (from my previous posts) travels to New York. John, however, became naturalised and his address is given as 119, 40th Street, Corona. on 15th December 1926 having arrived on the Baltic in February 1925. Sadly his life in New York was cut short, having developed pneumonia having gone to MSG on 21st January 1927 where he watched a fight between La Barba and Clark. He wrote about this to his father on 22nd January and sadly passed away January 25th. He also mentioned his Aunts Margie and Sah - the nurses I have previously enquired about.

Among some of the items my grandmother (John's sister) was the letter and some business cards belonging to John which he had enclosed to his father in previous letters as they were Easter greetings to other relatives.

On the front of the card the following details along with the name John Wood.

Telephone: Rhinelander 0300 Ext 99 and the address 412 East 65th Street, New York City.

I would be grateful if members could give me a little history around the Corona area at the time and also what the latter Phone Number and Address may have appertained to. There are a few words within the letter which I cannot make out but should anyone wish to view it please let me know.

Best regards and please stay safe. Bryn

As with my previous posts, I am very much inclined to believe there were predecessors from the Sunderland, Durham, England who went before Aunts Margaret and Sarah and John Wood. Their cousin - John Grey the cousin at 136, East 60th suggests that but there were no concrete results.

[oldohiohome]

Short on time right now, so, for now:
Never assume anything, but I think the phone number and address go together.

1. Google the exact phrase "Rhinelander 0300" - there are a few hits from old newspapers, they look like classified ads. I didn't look at the actual page to find the ad with that phone number. One from archives.org gave a lady's name and address next door to that address.

2. Google the street address for Google Maps today. The building was there in the 1950's at least - it still has the civil defense shelter sign on it, implying "in case of nuclear attack, go in our basement".  Our school had a similar sign on it. We were supposed to hide under our desks, 10 year olds.

3. A hint at the "toneyness" of the neighborhood, at least in the 1970's is at this link, when they replaced the names of phone exchanges with numbers only:

https://www.nytimes.com/1978/07/24/archives/new-jersey-pages-phone-exchanges-lose-their-letters-imagine-an.html

"No longer, says the New York Telephone Company, will we be able to drop BUtterfield 8 or RHinelander 4 or PLaza 5 exchanges at parties and expect appreciative stares."

I didn't find a NYC city directory 1925 to 1927 that was cross referenced by street, which would have helped. Maybe if you took a look at one from that era and tried under "Hotels" or "Apartments" you might find the building, I don't know.

[shellyesq]

Corona is in Queens.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corona,_Queens  The address with no East/West designation for the street fits with the street addresses in Queens.

412 East 65th Street, New York City = Manhattan. 

[RJ137]

412 East 65th Street was/is an apartment building.

Rhinelander 0300 was the phone exchange that covered that apartment building.

=======

Go to https://www.fultonhistory.com/fulton.html

Enter- "Rhinelander 0300" into search.(use the quotation marks)

You will get numerous results, all for that time period (1923-1929), they all seem to be attached to classified ads.

Now enter - "412 East 65th" into search.(use the quotation marks)

You will get numerous results (mostly all classified ads), identifying that address as an apartment building. Many of the ads have an apt number attached to that address.

========================

Here's an example of that phone exchange and address together in a classified ad.

The New York Times
September 27, 1925

[brynjon]

Great responses and much appreciated.

I have only visited New York once and was a whistle stop 3 day on the hop on/off bus to be fair. I think I will be having to have a long stay next time around to get the feel of the area.

I am fascinated by the things I have discovered about my family, from a normal ship yard family in a non affluent area of Sunderland, especially Margaret and Sarah and their solo trips around the UK to hop onto a cruise liner to New York which keeps the thought that there must have been a family contact. I will keep digging and that dig becomes a lot easier with all of your help. Stay safe - Bryn