Saloon-Tattoo Shops of New York City’s 4th Ward
Researched & Written By Tattoo Historian Carmen Forquer Nyssen
Although most notorious for its numerous boardinghouses, brothels, and drinking-holes, New York City’s wicked 4th Ward—set along the East River port—was also home to the city’s earliest tattooers. Catering to the old salts and dangerous criminals who frequented the area’s seedy establishments, many tattooers strategically set up in or near saloons, where they plied their trade amid a daily barrage of boozing, fist fights, and murder.
Unfortunately, specifics about these raucous tattoo shop-saloons have escaped historical studies. Yet, there IS compelling evidence that incorporates them into the greater gestalt of the scene that hasn’t been uncovered before now.
Hildebrandt’s 361 Water Street Tattoo Shop:
Sailor-tattooer, “Old Martin” Hildebrandt, a Civil War veteran, established one of the earliest documented tattoo shops in an especially dodgy drinking den. According to the 1858-1859 New York City Directory, Hildebrandt was tattooing at 361 Water Street. Newspaper reports and historical records identify this location as William Lockwood’s sailor boarding house and saloon, situated right off the river docks on the southwest corner of James Slip (No. 9-11) and Water Street (No. 361). Because of the abundant murders that took place at this “low gin mill,” it was known to locals as Slaughter House Point.
Map showing the Southwest Corner of Water Street and James Slip
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Possible photo of the original Slaughter House Point building
361 Water & 9-11 James Slip
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The Morning Courier and New York Enquirer, January 30, 1855, described the building as: “James’ Slip and Water Street-The three-story frame house and lot of ground, known as 361 Water street, and No. 9 James’ Slip, being the corner of James’ Slip and Water street…”
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Hildebrandt had to be tough as nails to wield his needle on and among Slaughter House Point’s ruffian patrons. At this precise time, it was the hangout of the infamous Daybreak Boys, a gang of murderous riverboat thieves. It so happens that one spring evening, in 1859, imaginably while Hildebrandt was pricking away on some old scalawag, the Daybreak Boys had a violent falling out in the saloon—an incident made famous by Herbert Asbury’s 1927 book The Gangs of New York.
Herbert Asbury’s The Gangs of New York mistakenly places the June 3, 1859 incident with “Slobbery Jim” and “Patsy the Barber” at the Hole-in-the Wall, a saloon at Dover and Water streets. However, several newspaper articles printed in 1859 clearly place the events at 361 Water Street, and refer to it as the Slaughter House Point saloon. Asbury’s erroneous information appears to be taken from a later January 20, 1874 Brooklyn Daily Eagle retrospective article that blunders the setting of the brawl, and possibly the gang’s moniker. (The Daybreak Boys gang was also portrayed in Martin Scorcese’s riveting Gangs of New York film starring Daniel Day Lewis and Leonardo DiCaprio).
As documented in a June 6, 1859 New York Times report, on June 3, gang leader James White, aka “Slobbery Jim,” and his sidekick “Billy the Greek,” started an altercation in the saloon at 361 Water with fellow thug, “Patsy the Barber.” In the midst of their heated scuffle, Slobbery Jim stabbed Patsy. Soon after, a coroner’s inquest found the barely 20-year-old Jim guilty, and he fled town.
Hildebrandt’s 42 Oak Street Tattoo Shop:
It’s unclear how long Hildebrandt tattooed at the Slaughter House Point saloon, but his next documented tattoo shop was also within the bounds of the nefarious 4th Ward sector—located at 42 Oak Street, just a few blocks north of James Slip, between James and Oliver streets. (His residences from the 1850s to 1880s were usually in this vicinity as well).
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This tattoo shop was likewise set up in the corner of a saloon, where Hildebrandt himself took part in the carousing. According to a December 18, 1872 New York Sun article, in the middle of the work day, after sitting for a lengthy interview with a news reporter, Hildebrandt “…called for a glass of grog all around.”
Photo of buildings between James and Oliver Streets
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As indicated by various historical records, since 1869, the 42 Oak Street saloon had been operated by wine and liquor dealer, Herman Rugen. Hildebrandt had taken up tattooing at Rugen’s saloon by at least 1872, and possibly as early as 1870. Although Hildebrandt is not listed in the 1870 city directory, the 1870 census lists both Hildebrandt and Rugen on the same enumeration page, in the same building.
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Intriguingly, for seven or more years, until the business folded c.1876-1877, Hildebrandt was connected to Herman Rugen and his 42 Oak Street saloon. He then relocated his shop to a saloon right around the corner at 77 James Street.
1877 Dec 23 New York Herald pg. 4
“Hess vs. Rugen-Motion to vacate order of arrest granted with $10 costs.”
In 1878, Hildebrandt returned to the 42 Oak Street saloon, then under new ownership. However, by 1880, he set up in his residence at 36 ½ Oak, a slum tenement on the corner of James Street. Here, between tattooing the rowdy crowds streaming from sailor’s boarding houses, brothels, and saloons, he created the very first ‘trade-specific’ tattooed attractions of Phineas T. Barnum and George B. Bunnell’s sideshow/dime museum stage–bringing his profession a whole new level of exposure and a curious new facet to the local landscape. Although Hildebrandt’s career fizzled out a few years later when he succumbed to depression, several other tattooers introduced their celebrated artistry to the revelry of 4th Ward saloons, in conjunction with the newly-founded, groundbreaking sideshow element of tattooing.
“The merging of the so-called sailor’s art with dime museum dynamics was an explosive development in tattooing,” –Tattoo Historian, Carmen Forquer Nyssen. Barnum and Bunnell’s Tattooed Humbugs: Manifesting a Tattoo Trade.
Edwin Thomas’ 40 South Tattoo Shop:
Given their mutual clientele, it’s not surprising that tattooers and saloons meshed in the greater scene. In fact, it’s viable that saloonkeepers, such as Herman Rugen, engaged in a sort of “friendly society” or promotional effort with tattooers. They could easily boost business by having better known practitioners on site, who by virtue of their sought after calling, were seasoned in obliging old salts, gangsters, and such, and hailed as masters of marketing their trade. Such ideas aren’t so far-fetched. While Rugen’s saloons weren’t again connected with Hildebrandt, one of his establishments was associated with his rival, Prof. Edwin Thomas, and several other relevant tattooers of the era.
New York City’s 4th Ward tattoo characters were aptly interconnected, allied with its usual proprietors and frequenters. As a business boon, Martin Hildebrandt’s various tattoo shops and residences were situated right down the street from a popular sailor’s boarding house at 78 James Street operated by Bridget McCaffrey and her son Matthew McCaffrey (1884-1886), also a shipping master at nearby 40 South Street’s Old Slip House. In keeping with the vagary of the district, the McCaffrey boarding business also served as a brothel. By 1880, as it happens, it was the alleged ‘workplace’ of Catherine Connors, who became Matthew’s common-law wife, and later, a patron of tattooing.
Probably sometime after Matthew’s death, by 1890, Catherine took on the occupation of ‘tattooed lady’ at Worth’s Palace Dime Museum. She had been covered by Prof. Edwin Thomas, a wayward thief and ship carpenter, and a coveted tattooer of the Old Slip House–in affiliation with Martin Hildebrandt’s old cohort, saloon owner Herman Rugen. (Read about Edwin Thomas’ immersion in New York City’s illicitness at the Buzzworthy Tattoo History feature: Edwin Thomas: Infamous Bowery Tattooer
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In 1882, after operating in various locations, Herman Rugen opened a saloon at the Old Slip House, which was a shipping building just a block from the East River docks hosting provisions for cargo ships and the unruly follies of their crews. In such a sailor’s haven, Rugen’s business surely benefited from the embellished publicity proffered by tattooers, especially during the burgeoning years of the trade bolstered by the novel-new sideshow and dime museum tattooed attractions.
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At his 40 South Street tattoo rooms, alongside Rugen’s saloon, Edwin Thomas enjoyed his share of sensationalism in media reports, which portrayed him as a bespectacled “learned professor” of tattooing, without mention of his criminality. As noted in a St. Joseph Herald article, in July of 1884, he set up at the the Old Slip house, having just returned from Chicago, where he had designed his own prestigious sideshow ‘tattooed ladies’ for the dime show circuit.
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A complimentary July of 1886 Daily Republican exclusive relayed how he tattooed on the Bowery in the evenings (probably at 35 Forsyth, Barney Rourke’s saloon) and in the day at 40 South Street, where a brilliantly painted sign, with the alluring verbage “tattooing done in india ink,” drew carousing customers up to his studio. It even offered directions to his tattoo shop in the building:
“Securely fastened to the brick walls of a neat four-story house in the lower part of South street is a sign with a background of white, on which are painted, in blue and red letters, these words: Tattooing done with India ink.” ….. “the painter of this sign occupies rooms on the fourth story of the building. Two long flights of stairs must be ascended, a turn to the left made and a walk down a narrow hall taken before a visitor can stand on the threshold of the studio….”
Thomas plied his trade at 40 South Street with at least one other tattooer of similar renowned. In 1886, he partnered with Philadelphia’s, Stephen R. Lee, who had earned his favor in the trade by assisting Martin Hildebrandt with creating the first ever trade-specific, sideshow tattooed attractions. (In May of 1890, the New York Sun reported that Thomas actually had two partners at the Old Slip House, but it doesn’t name them).
“With the help of Barnum and Bunnell’s promotional expertise, ‘trade-specific’ tattooed attractions, ranked among the most sensational humbugs.” –Tattoo Historian, Carmen Forquer Nyssen, Barnum and Bunnell’s Tattooed Humbugs: Manifesting a Tattoo Trade.
‘Trade-specific tattooed attraction’ coined by Tattoo Historian Carmen Forquer Nyssen
As inferred by Thomas’ unfolding, unsavory 4th Ward dealings most definitely intermingled with tattooing and its sideshow spectacle. In 1890, Thomas’ tattooing acclaim at the Old Slip House met with his cavorting relations, when he was sentenced to his umpteenth stint in Sing Sing Prison. In a fit of jealousy, he shot and nearly killed his tattooed ex-mistress, Jennie Connors, none other than the sister of Worth’s Dime Museum tattooed lady Catherine Connors McCaffrey.
The last tattooer at 40 South Street was the most influential of the bunch in the realm of tattooing. By 1891, the spot was overtaken by Chatham Square Dime Museum star, Samuel F. O’Reilly. This was the year he was granted the first tattoo machine patent, just after he had produced several groundbreaking and never-before-seen electrically tattooed attractions; some possibly at the Old Slip House locale. O’Reilly, in fact, was tattooing at 40 South Street while developing his electrical tattooing devices–as noted on a naturalization record for dime museum illusionist inventor, John Feggetter Blake, who likely helped build his patent models.
For more on Samuel F. O’Reilly and his pioneering tattoo career, see Buzzworthy Tattoo History research compositions: Tattoo Shops 5 & 11 Chatham Square, Early Tinkerers of Electric Tattooing, John O’Reilly: The Tattooed Irishman and Tattooed by O’Reilly: First Electrically Tattooed Attractions.
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Tattooers were an integral part of the 4th Ward for many years, even as they expanded their trade beyond its confines. More than mere fixtures, they were dynamic entrepreneurs, leveraging their craft in a shady setting, and by the 1880s, partaking in the grandiose opportunities of Barnum and Bunnell’s showman’s platforms. All the while tattooing was developing into a bonafide trade, via the sideshow, it simultaneously carried on as a sailor’s art. For at least twenty years, saloonkeeper Herman Rugen capitalized on the ever-increasing appeal of tattooers, from his 1870s collaboration with Martin Hildebrandt, and on. Throughout the 1880s period, and into the 1890s, the 40 South Street saloon was under ownership of the Rugen family. Herman Rugen operated it with his brother’s family until he died in 1888. Afterward, his brother Henry Rugen and sister-in-law Catherine Rugen operated it until Henry’s death in 1892. Catherine, and son, Harry Rugen, kept it running for several years afterward.
To see my Rugen family research at Find-A-Grave, click on the above links highlighted in brown. I’ve since relinquished my account, but the information is still posted on the individual memorials.
Read about the merging historical momentum that birthed tattooing into a bonafide trade at Buzzworthy Tattoo History research features: Birth of the Tattoo Trade: New York Bowery, Barnum and Bunnell’s Tattooed Humbugs: Manifesting a Tattoo Trade and A Tattooed Affair: Earliest Tattooed Attractions).
Notes:
Note 1-A February 1, 1898 New York Evening Post article refers to Hildebrandt as “Old Martin.”
Note 2-Herbert Asbury’s The Gangs of New York mistakenly places the June 3, 1859 incident with “Slobbery Jim” and “Patsy the Barber” at the Hole-in-the Wall, a saloon at Dover and Water streets. However, several 1859 newspaper articles clearly place the events at 361 Water Street, and specifically refer to it as the Slaughter House Point saloon. Asbury’s erroneous information appears to be taken from a January 20, 1874 Brooklyn Daily Eagle historical retrospective article that confuses the unfolding of events, including the locale of the brawl and possibly the gang’s moniker. (Wikipedia’s listing for the events is also incorrect, as the information was extracted directly from Asbury’s book).
Note 3-As documented by a June 6, 1859 Albany Express newspaper article and the 1860 New York directory, in 1859-1860, the operator of Slaughter House Point was William Lockwood.
1860 NY City Dir pg.514
W.E. Lockwood & Co, liquors 361 water
Note 4-A January 16, 1876 New York Times article describes Hildebrandt’s tattoo shop as being located at Oak Street between Oliver and James streets and notes that his “atelier was a tavern with a well sanded floor….” This would have to be the 42 Oak Street locale, as 36 1/2 Oak, where he was located by 1880 was his residence, a tenement house.
1875 New York (NY) City Dir pg 590
Martin Hildebrandt tatooing h77 James
1876 New York (NY) City Directory pg 408
Martin Hildebrandt seaman h33 Tallman
1877 New York (NY) City Dir pg 590
Martin Hildebrandt tatooing 77 James
A October 28, 1877 Chicago Tribune feature describes Hildebrandt tattooing in a saloon near Oak Street; 77 James was around the corner from the Oak Street location.
Note 5-Herman Rugen apparently had financial issues relating to the saloon at 42 Oak Street.
1877 Dec 23 New York Herald pg. 4
“Hess vs. Rugen-Motion to vacate order of arrest granted with $10 costs.”
1878 Oct 26 New York Herald pg. 2
The following sales were made on the Real Estate Exchange October 25: By William Kennelly, Bernard Reilly, Sheriff-Foreclosure sale of the buildings, with lot 25×100, on the w.s of Oliver st., indefinite; also the buildings, with lot 5×50, on Oliver st. n.w. corner (Nos. 46 and 48) Oak st.; also the house, with lot 25×50, No 42 Oak st., n.s, e. of Oliver st. to plaintiff …..$5,9000
1878 Trow’s New York (NY) City Dir pg 637
Martin Hilderbrand [sic] tattooer 42 Oak h r 68 James
According to census records, Hildebrandt was at 36 ½ Oak by 1880, the year all the saloon fixtures were sold off. By 1881, the saloon was under new ownership.
1880 Sept 1 New York Herald pg. 2
Richard Walters’ Sons, Auctioneers, will sell this day, at 10 o’clock, at 42 Oak st., the stock and fixtures of first class liquor and lager beer saloon-pull English Ale Pump Bar and Back bar, tables, chairs, pictures, large French plate mirror, etc
1881 Mar 18 Evening Telegram pg. A
States that James Nevins operates a “low saloon” at 42 Oak.
Perhaps because of Herman Rugen’s past financial troubles, his new place at the 40 South Street building was leased under his sister-in-law’s Catherine Rugen’s name. City directories list Catherine, her husband Henry, and Herman as operating the saloon at 40 South Street.
1882 Aug 25 The Sun (NY) pg 8
Leases: Bassett, Hannah V C et al, to Catherine Rugen et al, 40 South St, 2 4-12 yrs (duplicate), per year…4,000
Note 6– Tattooers at 40 South Street
1888 Trow’s New York City Dir
pg 1960 Thomas and Lee Tattooing 40 South
pg 1137 Stephen Lee Tattooing 40 South
1889 New York City Dir pg 1974
Edwin Thomas tattooer, 40 South
1890 New York City Dir-
Edwin Thomas tattooer 40 South
1891 Samuel O’Reilly was also located at 40 South Street, according to an October 22, 1891 Naturalization document for John F. Blake, aka Prof. Feggetter.
Questions or Comments? Email:
carmennyssen@buzzworthytattoo.com
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