Eyes on the Street: The Life of Jane Jacobs (69 page)

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Authors: Robert Kanigel

Tags: #Biography & Autobiography, #Women, #History, #United States, #20th Century, #Political Science, #Public Policy, #City Planning & Urban Development

BOOK: Eyes on the Street: The Life of Jane Jacobs
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“Miss Eldridge”
: Joe Polakoff, “About a Man’s Man,”
Scranton Tribune
, 1937.
“dented by four little windows”
: “Dr. J. D. Butzner Dies in Hospital,”
Scranton Tribune
, December 23, 1937.
admitted to probate
: Lackawanna County, PA, Register of Wills, January 6, 1938.
Peter A. Frasse
: Application for Federal Appointment, September 8, 1949, Attachment F, StL; records of Peter A. Frasse & Co., 1818–1977, at the New-York Historical Society, make no reference to Jane Butzner.
curls of steel
: Interview, Jim Jacobs.
“do the work of three girls”
: FBI, Jane Butzner Jacobs, File No. 123–252, July 20, 1948, p. 6.
“ ‘trouble shooting’ secretary”
: Application for Federal Appointment, September 8, 1949, Attachment F, StL. “Junior Efficiency Engineer” is my conceit, not her title.

CHAPTER 5: MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS

if not a writer
: M. Ondaatje to Jane Jacobs, September 26, 1994, and undated reply, Burns, 6:5.
geology course
: Information on this and others of Jane’s courses at Columbia comes from
Bulletin of University Extension
, 1938–1939.
“clay dogs”
:
D&L
, p. 582.
Jane Butzner, grade transcript
, Columbia University School of General Studies.
New York University
: “Information Required to Complete Application,” response to question, “Have you taken any courses in English or journalism?,” January 5, 1950, StL.
lab notebook
: It was called
Laboratory Directions in Elementary Vertebrate Zoology.
Furnished by Jim Jacobs.
one version of a story
: The story, in similar form, related by three family members.
Neil T. Dowling
: Group of articles about Dowling in
Columbia Law Review
58, no. 5 (May 1958): 589–612, by Herbert Wechsler, Stanley Reed, William T. Bossett, Thomas I. Parkinson, Frederic P. Lee; Louis Luskey, “In Memoriam Noel T. Dowling,”
Columbia Law Review
69, no. 3 (March 1969): 351–52. See also
Columbia University Bulletin of Information
, 1938–1939, for information on Jane’s law courses.
a single house
:
Chaff
, p. 5.
“the second to check”
:
Chaff
, p. 7.
“danger to the public interest”
:
Chaff
, p. 57.
“a faithless thing”
:
Chaff
, p. 1.
“best possible reason”
:
Chaff
, preface.
“affected air of wisdom”
:
Chaff
, p. 160.
“a well done job”
: Noel T. Dowling to Charles G. Proffitt, June 3, 1940, Columbia University Press Papers, ColumbiaRare.
“of any source”
: Henry H. Wiggins to Jane Butzner, July 15, 1940, Columbia University Press Papers, ColumbiaRare.
“some difficulty”
: H.H.W., Memo for the File, July 24, 1940, Columbia University Press Papers, ColumbiaRare.
life insurance settlement
: Interview, Jim Jacobs, who also suggests Jane may have received some help from Hemphill, who was romantically involved with Betty at this time. In Jane’s preface to
Chaff
, she acknowledges “the enthusiasm and wisdom of Robert H. Hemphill.”
Mrs. Butzner sent her a check
: JJ to her mother, penciled onto bottom of Jane Butzner to R. F. Price, Dorrance & Co., January 18, 1939, Columbia University Press Papers, ColumbiaRare.
“I am delighted”
: Jane Butzner to Charles G. Proffitt, January 2, 1941, Columbia University Press Papers, ColumbiaRare.
“composing their own divergences”
:
Chaff
, p. 1.
“helpful counsel”
: Note of thanks on typescript of
Chaff
given to John Butzner, courtesy Decker Butzner.
boat trip up the Atlantic coast
:
Ethics
, p. 229.
“thought it was so cute”
: Kunstler, II, p. 9.
“A Woman Blazes a Trail”
: Jane Butzner to Fleming H. Revell Co., December 7, 1939, Burns, 17.
“threw together a manuscript”
:
Alaska
, p. xiv.
“some admirers who liked it”
:
Alaska
, p. xv. The story of Hannah Breece and her Alaska manuscript is taken up again in chapter 23.
“moves along too slowly”
: Elizabeth M. Morrow to Jane Butzner, April 16, 1940, Burns, 17.
“lacked sufficient craftsmanship”
:
Alaska
, p. xv.
“loved geology and zoology”
:
Matter
, p. 3.
“was almost my undoing”
:
Matter
, p. 3.
“the Dragon Lady”
: Account drawn from Harvey, p. 37, and video interview of JJ by Lucy Jacobs, 1992.
“I could spell molybdenum”
:
Matter
, p. 12.
$25 a week
: Application for Federal Employment, September 8, 1949, Attachment E, StL.
train to Philadelphia
: Application for Federal Employment, October 26, 1946, StL.
“lunchtime in Wall Street”
: Kunstler, I, p. 2.
processing servicemen
: For New York City during the war, see Diehl; Jackson,
WWII & NYC;
exhibition of the same name, at New-York Historical Society, 2012, provided further details.
“Everyone knew it was ghoulish”
:
Dark
, p. 55.

CHAPTER 6: WOMEN’S WORK

in late 1942
: Application for Federal Employment, September 8, 1949, Attachment E, StL. “Shortly before I had completed two years” at
Iron Age
, she was promoted, which would make it about late 1942.
“All the common non-ferrous metals”
: J. I. Butzner, “Non-Ferrous Metals,”
Iron Age
, January 7, 1943.
course in physical metallurgy
: The certificate is dated May 20, 1943. The course comprised sixty-three class hours and was conducted through Columbia University, Burns, 23:3.
substantial autonomy
: Application for Federal Employment, September 8, 1949, Attachment E, StL.
helping out her hometown
: The Scranton story is nicely told in Lang and Wunsch, pp. 31–33. See also Jane Butzner, “Daily’s Effort Saves City from ‘Ghost Town’ Fate,”
Editor & Publisher
(1943); “30,000 Unemployed and 7,000 Empty Houses in Scranton, Neglected City,”
Iron Age
, March 25, 1943.
boss didn’t much like it
: For one take, see LaurenceDiss, pp. 93–95.
A week before
: Jane Butzner, “Trylon’s Steel Helps to Build Big New Nickel Plant in Cuba,”
New York Herald Tribune
, December 27, 1942.
women on the home front
: Jane Butzner, “Women Wanted…”
Washington Post
, October 26, 1942.
same pay
: Jane Jacobs to Carroll St. Claire, July 22, 1949, Answers to Interrogatory for Jane Butzner Jacobs, paragraph 1, Burns.
T. W. Lippert
: See
Carnegie Alumnus
, unknown date, class notes, ’32.
“loose and untrue”
: JJ to Carroll St. Claire, July 22, 1949, Answers to Interrogatory for Jane Butzner Jacobs, paragraph 1, Burns.
“a troublemaker and an agitator”
: FBI File 123–252, July 20, 1948, p. 5.
all but hers
: Application for Federal Employment, November 27, 1943, StL; Certificate of Medical Examination, November 26, 1943, StL.
Office of War Information
: See Winkler; Application for Federal Employment, September 8, 1949, Attachment D, StL; interview, Jim Jacobs.
“with unmistakable American sincerity”
: Winkler, p. 76.
“the strategy of truth”
: Winkler, p. 13.
“necessary for me”
: Application for Federal Employment, September 8, 1949, Attachment D, StL.
“rapid promotion”
: “Justification for ‘Rapid Promotion,’ ” prepared by Frederick Silber, October 3, 1944, StL.
“a very brilliant”
: LaurenceDiss, p. 74.
dragooned into service
:
Matter
, p. 44.
“a new permanent wave”
: JJ to her mother, penciled onto bottom of JJ to R. F. Price, Dorrance & Co., January 18, 1939, Columbia University Press Papers, ColumbiaRare.
“the children here gawk”
: JJ to her family, January 21, 1967, Burns, 4:7.
“a handsome, impressive woman”
: Interview, John Jacobs.
Grumman Aircraft
: See Diehl, pp. 172–74.
“I walked in the door”
:
Matter
, p. 12.

CHAPTER 7: AMERIKA

Robert Hyde Jacobs Jr.
: Interviews with Bob’s children, his cousin John, and his wife, Katia, and other family and friends; informal timeline by his granddaughter Caitlin, Burns, 22; biographical listings including
American Architects Journal
, 2nd edition, 1962; obituary,
Villager
, September 25, 1996; Robert Fulford, “Lives Lived”: Robert Hyde Jacobs,”
Globe and Mail
, September 24, 1996; Sid Adilman, “Robert H. Jacobs, 79, Hospital Architect,”
Toronto Star
, September 19, 1996.

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