Hurley Bottling Co., Far Rockaway, N.Y.

hurley  

I didn’t find any information on a bottling company, but Jeremiah Hurley was listed as a Far Rockaway hotel owner located at Greenwood Ave n Broadway in the various Trow Business Directories of the Borough of Queens between 1899 and 1908-1909. (I’ve found that back then, many hotels ran their own bottling operation as well.) He was not listed in the 1890 Lains Business Directory of Brooklyn that included Far Rockaway, so the business probably started between 1891 and 1898.

An article in the April 20, 1909 issue of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle stated that: “the Hotel was sold under foreclosure in November 1908 to Congressman Willett for $11,100.” Hurley still listed himself as a hotelkeeper on Greenwood Avenue in the 1910 census records and the NYS Commissioner of Excise lists him as a Liquor Tax Certificate Holder (Hotel – Greenwood Ave east of Broadway) in the years ending September 1913 and 1914. So, it appears he continued managing the business until at least 1914.

Hurley’s financial problems went as far back as 1905. On August 24th of that year a debtor’s petition and schedule was filed and the matter was referred to a referee. Eighteen creditors were listed including the North Side Brewing Co of Manhattan. At the time his assets were listed as $250 and his liabilities were $ 5,259.

The 1909 Brooklyn Daily Eagle article concerned a child custody battle between Hurley and his father for the young Hurley’s five children. The article included testimony regarding the hotel and what went on there: “they carried on every set of games in the house – dancing, singing and playing at times until the early hours of the morning.”

Records from the early 1900’s show that Greenwood Avenue was renamed Greenport Rd however there is no Greenport Rd in Far Rockaway today. Google Earth takes me to Gateway Blvd so it’s possible it was renamed again later. Gateway Blvd intersects with a one block long street called Hurley Court. I have to believe that the Hurley Hotel was somewhere in the vicinity of this intersection. The area is currently residential in nature with primarily single-family homes.

The one bottle I found is a pony with a tooled blob finish. This fits with the 1890’s to 1914 time frame. (Maybe it held some of the North Side Brewing Co.’s product?). I haven’t seen an example of this bottle on the Internet.