Eyes on the Street: The Life of Jane Jacobs (68 page)

gobbled up
:
The Scranton Times
bought the
Republican
in February 1934, while Jane was still working there.

“doing routine items”
:
Matter
, p. 3.

“It was preposterous”
: Interview, Katia Jacobs.

“work for you for nothing”
: JJ interview with Peter Gzowski, Ideas That Matter conference, 1997, videotape, Toronto Reference Library, no. 2345212.

$18 a week
: StL, Application for Federal Employment, November 27, 1943, and September 8, 1949; in email to author, March 18, 2013, Ned Jacobs sheds light on Jane’s arrangement with the paper.

“nobody objected”
:
Dark
, p. 53.

“be my mentor”
: JJ interview with Peter Gzowski, Ideas That Matter conference, 1997, videotape, Toronto Reference Library, no. 2345212. The mentor may have been an editor named Gordon Williams. See “Bess Butzner, Ex-Teacher-Nurse, Celebrates 90th Birthday Saturday,”
Scrantonian
, June 15, 1969.

“my ‘journalism school’ ”
: JJ to Hakim Hasan, February 28, 2001, Burns, 3:6. See also
Matter
, p. 189.

see her father
: Wachtel, p. 42.

Medical Arts Building
: Architectural plans of the office, and access to the premises, graciously provided by Lou Danzico, president, Management Enterprises, Scranton.

mostly of English stock
:
CityWealth
, p. 125.

“snapping of a pitchfork”
:
CityWealth
, p. 126.

“different and interesting kind of life”
:
Matter
, p. 3; Wachtel, p. 42.

Well, now, Jane
: Interview, Jane Henderson.

noted Jane’s coming
: Ann Butzner papers.

The news squib didn’t need
:
CityWealth
, chapter 9, pp. 124–34;
Dark
, p. 168; Denny Moore, “Sunshine Spread Between States,”
Presbyterian Advance
, September 15, 1932; “History of Markle School at Higgins,”
Asheville Citizen
, July 26, 1936; correspondence bearing on Higgins and Martha Robison, Markle Papers, RG 3, Series 5, Box 4, Folder 28, Rockefeller; see also partly illegible account about Martha Robison, probably September 1936, Burns; Gerald W. Gillette to J. I. Butzner, June 11, 1965, Burns, 12:10; “Miss Martha Robison Dies,”
Morning Press
(Bloomsburg), November 24, 1941; my account profits from a visit to the Higgins site, and from correspondence and interview with Annie Butzner, and from her papers; see also notes to chapter 1, on the Robisons.

“wet, murky”
: “Miss Robison Tells of Work in North Carolina Mountains,” no publication, no date, but from internal evidence about 1928, Burns.

part of a still
: Interview, Kay Butzner.

“overwhelming conviction”
: “Miss Robison Tells of Work in North Carolina Mountains,” no publication, no date, but from internal evidence about 1928, Burns.

received a letter
: Chronology established in Florence E. Quick [John Markle’s assistant] to A. S. Woods, July 29, 1930, Markle Papers, RG 3, Series 5, Box 4, Folder 28, Rockefeller. Markle was an uncle by marriage to Jane’s mother.

“never dared think”
: Martha E. Robison to Cousin John (Markle), November 14, 1929, Markle Papers, RG 3, Series 5, Box 4, Folder 28, Rockefeller.

promised to give $25,000
: John Markle to Martha E. Robison, January 14, 1930, Markle Papers, RG 3, Series 5, Box 4, Folder 28, Rockefeller.

“The spaces are all ample”
: C. T. Greenway to John Markle, May 9, 1931, Markle Papers, RG 3, Series 5, Box 4, Folder 28, Rockefeller.

Film footage
: Untitled Board of National Missions film, twelve minutes. Thanks to Diana Ruby Sanderson, Warren Wilson College.

tightly tufted straw
: Thanks to Annie Butzner for letting me see one of those brooms.

On July 3, 1934
: Martha E. Robison to Florence E. Quick, July 4, 1934, Markle Papers, RG 3, Series 5, Box 4, Folder 28, Rockefeller.

Jane’s sister, Betty
: Ann Butzner papers.

“Girls’ club work”
: Ann Butzner papers.

“the largest gathering”
: Ann Butzner papers.

“We may mourn”
:
CityWealth
, p. 129.

never to have seen Higgins again
: Interview, Jim Jacobs.

“majestic folded hills”
:
CityWealth
, p. 125.

“make do with firelight”
:
CityWealth
, p. 127.

“the thrilling story”
: Denny Moore, “Sunshine Spread Between States,”
Presbyterian Advance
, September 15, 1932.

“bright and full of curiosity”
:
CityWealth
, p. 128.

CHAPTER 4: THE GREAT BEWILDERING WORLD

“came to seek my fortune”
:
D&L
, dedication.

Pennsylvania Museum and School
: See the school’s
Circular of the Art Department
, beginning in 1931–32, for curricula and some of Betty’s awards; interviews and correspondence with Betty’s daughter, Carol Bier.

cheap rooming house
: Kunstler, I, p. 3.

Orange Street
: JJ to Myrna Katz Frommer and Harvey Frommer, June 26, 2000, Burns. The building itself is gone but maps at the Brooklyn Historical Society give some sense of the street.

Brooklyn Heights
: Whyte,
The WPA Guide
, pp. 441–47.

bounced between jobs
: See JJ’s federal employment records, StL; interview, Jim Jacobs.

Robert H. Hemphill
: StL, Application for Federal Appointment, September 8, 1949, Attachment F; Hemphill obituary,
New York Times
, April 24, 1941. Later in the 1930s, Hemphill wrote for
Social Justice
, Father Coughlin’s extreme right-wing publication. The Dwight B. Waldo Library at Western Michigan University has a small cache of Hemphill materials, including a “pencil sketch done by a neighbor on yellow copy paper at 55 Morton St., New York City, NY, about 1937–38”; Betty seems a better guess for the artist than Jane.

helped a broker
: Request for Investigation Data, April 10, 1948, StL.

sought work at the Markle Foundation
: Florence E. Quick to Martha Robison, April 1, 1935, Markle Papers, RG 3, Series 5, Box 4, Folders 28 and 29, Rockefeller: “I am sorry I was not able to be of any assistance to your niece and hope she was successful in locating a position here in New York.” In her reply (Martha E. Robison to Florence E. Quick, April 12, 1935), Martha expresses uncertainty as to whether it was Jane or Betty who approached Markle. But Betty already had the job at A&S—and kept it (correspondence with Carol Bier) for a couple of years. This, and Jane’s early employment history generally, argue persuasively for Jane.

“all the exotic places”
: Noah Richler, “Wealth in Diversity,”
Weekend Books
, March 18, 2000.

turned to gambling
: JJ, “Futility vs. Taking Chances,” lecture manuscript, no date, no place, Burns, 13.

apartment cleaned
: Interview, Burgin Jacobs.

Pablum
: Kunstler, I, 4. Jane adds, “I don’t want to give you the impression that we lived for long periods like this. Maybe toward the end of the week.”

“catchabeano”
: See video,
Think Again: Jane Jacobs on Urban Living
, TVO, Ontario Public Television, 1997.

“taught you how to read”
: Interview, Jim Jacobs.

“rejections and frugalities”
:
Dark
, p. 53.

110 words per minute
: Application for Federal Employment, November 27, 1943, item 42, StL.

“didn’t know where I was”
: Alexander and Weadick.

a man stepped from
: Amateau, “Jane Jacobs, Urban Legend, Returns Downtown.” For fur district, see also
The WPA Guide
, p. 163.

“know everyone else”
: Jane Butzner, “Where the Fur Flies,” p. 103.

“damp, sweet perfume”
:
Matter
, p. 35. See also Alexander and Weadick.

thirteen months
:
Matter
, pp. 36–37. The original manuscript can be found at Burns, 13:1.

“sound of the name”
: Kunstler, I, 3.

Sheridan Square
: Whyte,
The WPA Guide
, pp. 140–42.

Jones Street
: Ware, p. 44.

“liked the little streets”
: Alexander and Weadick.

a small elevator
: JJ to Myrna Katz Frommer and Harvey Frommer, July 12, 2000, Burns.

$50 a month
: 1940 U.S. Census, which also tells us something of Jane’s neighbors.

“lived there quite a while”
: Alexander and Weadick.

“Did you hang out?”
: Kunstler, I, p. 4.

“ ‘long-haired men’ ”
: Ware, p. 3.

“Messages”
:
D&L
, p. 175.

“complicated great place”
:
Matter
, p. 15.

Scharf Brothers
: Application for Federal Appointment, November 27, 1943, StL.

She wrote to
: Interview, Burgin Jacobs.

father sat her down
:
Dark
, p. 54.

“a mess in there”
: Interview, Jim Jacobs.