Old Homes

[stoney]

My very first apartment in 1974 was at 1420 Genesee St., the Amlott Apartments, where Nurse's Park is now (next door to Planned Parenthood). That's another old apartment building which used to house nice flats that were eventually divided up into smaller units.

My apt. cost $85.00 per month, all utilities included & furnished. lol! (It was perfect for my 18-year old self. )

[fiona]

I remember the Amlott. It ran down to nothing, and then I believe there was a fire there? I don't know much about it though, when it was built, ect. Can you describe the inside? When I first moved into the Olbiston in 1983 my rent was $125.00. The Planned Parenthood Building ( The Albright House) has quite a history attached to it because of the fire at the GF. I believe we have some of it already on line. Dave and I are working on a story line where the main chararcter, Ann Sullivan, goes there after she falls in the road and I hope to take the reader inside the home as it was then - as much as I can- . Can you tell me how it "felt" to live in that neighborhood? What were the vibes you got from the Olbiston and the Albright House?
Everyone has a story and every story is connected to another story, something older, and the stories go back forever. People hold on to their tidbits, not thinking anyone else would ever be interested, but I am always mining for gold where the Olbiston, Albright's and the GF are concerned.

[stoney]

The farthest back I can find any info about the Amlott is 1913 when the building was for sale. Then, it was 360 Genesee, not 1420. I'm wondering if it used to be called something else? I don't know when it was built. Like I said, It was all flats at 1st, then became smaller apartments. It even had one of those old fashioned elevators with the cage-type folding door. All flats had front & rear porches/balconies.

[fiona]

Well, now that have the adress, and a time line, I can go back to the old directories and research it. The elevator your describing was an old Otis. They all had the folding gate doors and were called 'lifts". Olbiston had two and the GF only had one: one elevator for 250+ people. These old elevators were fascinating - all woked by hand cranks- I think I read somewhere that the only reason these tall buildings could be inhabited was because of the Otis elevator.

[dgriffin]

Utica Daily Press May 7, 1980


Amlott apartments sold

The Amlott, a four-story brick apartment house at 1420 Genesee-St. has
been sold to Calvin Jones, a WIBX time salesman. Jones is also proprietor
of Livingston's Ale House on the Limberlost Road in Clinton.

The xxx by 350-foot property. with 43 apartments and 22-stall garages.
owned by Harry Kann, former operator Kahn's Men's Shop. The
purchase pricewas in excess of $100,000.
Real estate agent for the sale was A. F. Murad Realty Co. Inc. in cooperation
with Charles W. Sears Real Estate Inc.
Jones said he is renovating the building, repainting porches and planting
shrubs and trees. He said the apartment house is nearly 100 percent rented .

[stoney]

It was already going downhill by then, In '75 there was a murder on the same floor as me. A dancer & her pimp killed a Marine, dragged him down the back stairs & dumped his body on Dyke Rd.


Not cool.

[stoney]

A co-defendant in the murder-robbery
trial in Supreme Court, Karen White,
yesterday denied that she struck or
stabbed Richard L Murphy Jr. whose
body was found May tr 1975 off Dyte
Road, Town of Schuyler in Herkimer
CountyT
Earlier, the other co-defendant Willie
Stewart, said that Miss White was the
one who struck 26-year-old Murphy with
a bed slat and also stabbed Murphy in
the chest on Dyke Road.
Miss White, also known as Theresa
Hackett, and Stewart, who shared an.
apartment at 1420 Genesee St., are
charged with murdering and robbing
Murphy.-of 1110 Churchill Ave., and
then transporting his body to the Dyke
Road area.
Under questioning yesterday, by her
attorney, John Longeretta, Miss White
said it was Stewart who hit Murphy with
the frying pan and a bed slat ana then
stabbed the Utican a number of times.
—The -i1«8- yy ear-old woman will be cro&sexamiinneeda
today by Asst. Dist Atty. Edward
A. Wolff Jr. and by Stewart's attorney,
Leslie Lewis.
MISS WHITE said she loved, hated
and feared Stewart whom she identified
as her "pimp" and as the man who
forced her to do eight to ten "tricks"
(acts of prostitution) daily. She estimated
she made about $1,000 a week as
a prostitute and as a go-go dancer.
But, she told the jury of five women
and seven men. that she had a drug
habit- requiring from five to eight,
"fixes" 01 heroin daily.
Under questioning by Longeretta,
Miss White told of her meeting with
Murphy and also traced her life. She
said she came from a broken home. She
told of .being placed In several foster
homes, of being raped by her stepfather,
of escaping from two schools for
delinquent girls and finally of becoming
a prostitute and using drugs before 17
years of age.
Miss White said Stewart, after he had
lived with her for awhile and got her
oil for the car.
She said that when Murphy got rough
with her she called for Stewart to help
her. A fight started she said, and Stewart
hit Murphy over the head with the
frying pan, breaking the handle. She
said that when Murphy continued to
frght Stewart she gave him a bed slat.
She testified that Stewart, standing over
Murphy, hit him three times on the
heaa.
Miss White said when they cotruld not
stop the bleeding they took the body to
Dyke Road.

[dgriffin]

Pretty awful. I'm sure the mothers of these two could tell a story about how they were nice kids once and went bad due to, a. sex, b. drugs, and c. rock and roll. And it might be true.

Two people not going anywhere, offered a thousand a week dancing and turning tricks, versus $2.50 an hour (then) working at Rite Aid. Karen always plans to get out, head south to Florida, maybe. Start over, meet a nice guy, keep her little secret for life. Willie just gets more and more sour, his attitude following his luck, which spirals downward as the drugs leave him fit for nothing but day labor, when he can get out of bed.

When Karen shouts for help, Willie doesn't come right away. Willie had seen the Marine, and the big galoot wasn't drunk enough yet for our hero to handle him. Willie hangs back, but the next thump is so loud he has to run in the bedroom and do something. He puts the frying pan down on the back of the head of Lance Corporal Dick Murphy, real hard so the guy won't get up for a while.
But Murphy rises. Karen reaches next to the bed where she has stored a bed slat for just such occasions, hands it to Willie, who is now quite scared the Marine will pound the sh*t out of him. Willie grabs the slat and gets in a good shot to Dick's head. He gives him one more so the s.o.b. will definitely not get up for a while.

Somewhere deep, near unconsciousness, Dick Murphy is still angry, and with all his might moves his arm. That is unfortunate and seals his fate. The movement scares Willie and he gives the Marine one more shot with the slat, a death blow.

[stoney]

Wow! Where'd you get that? (Actually, Willie was hiding in the closet.) I think she worked at the Elbow Room, where she picked Murphy up. I remember both of them: Willie was nice & talkative in the hallway; Karen just glared at me & wouldn't say hello. They dragged his body down the back stairs, & I remember leaving that morning to go to work & I thought it was brown paint in the stairs someone had spilled.

[fiona]

Stuff has happened in that neighborhood! That whole area, Olbiston, Kanatenah, Amlott, Planned Parenthood Building (former Albright House), even up on Clinton Place, is just a cesspool of negative energy. Many years ago I had a Pagan freind of mine describe the area, especially around and at the Olbiston, as a PORTAL. It was many years before I knew what she meant. I personally know of at least three suicides at the Olbiston in the last 30 years - there may be more - people jumped off the roof there- it's just crazy - but - there is a reason for it - as we know - energy with no place to go likes to hang around and cause trouble - read Dave's story about the Indian Chief Mettusah (sp) for a good example. On the lite side, I remember the Elbow Room on South Street. It was owned and run by Sid Baker. The Elbow Room was the last stop for a dancer on a downward slide, after that it was a room at the Yates Hotel, after that it was usually prison or death.

[dgriffin]

Jan 1, 2010 11:53:08 GMT -5 @stoney said:

Wow! Where'd you get that? (Actually, Willie was hiding in the closet.) I think she worked at the Elbow Room, where she picked Murphy up. I remember both of them: Willie was nice & talkative in the hallway; Karen just glared at me & wouldn't say hello. They dragged his body down the back stairs, & I remember leaving that morning to go to work & I thought it was brown paint in the stairs someone had spilled.

Made it up.

[dgriffin]

Made this up, too.




One of These Nights

Karen sat in the closet and it was pitch black. Suspended between a sense of fright and a strange sort of comfort, she let the beat of the juke box pulse through her sore body. The Elbow's owner said she was crazy, but the closet was her "backstage." In it she undressed and waited for her entrance number to come up on the jukebox, a large Wurlitzer from the 1950's that sat just outside the closet door.

She remembered as a young girl hiding in a closet from her father when he would come looking for her. How she would shake with fear and sometimes wet herself, hoping against hope he would fall down drunk before he found her. She remembered the day as a young teenager when that fear had turned to rage, and the rage had brought a bright and searing white light straight out from the middle of her forehead. She could see it shine out into her father's face when he opened the closet door and reached for her. The beam of light cut off abruptly when he screamed, the knife stuck in his cheek, the point popping out through the skin just below his ear. He fell backwards, squealing like the pig he was. He spit blood for a week, and kept large square Bandaids over the hole below his ear for days. And he never came near her again.

(THE READER MAY NOW START THE YOUTUBE PLAYBACK, BELOW.)

Timothy B. Schmit thumped out the bass line as the The Eagles began their recording of "One Of These Nights," a song destined to reach the Top Ten in 1975.

Karen's simple choreography was to throw open the closet door to the bar area on the first of Don Felder's ringing chords, and step out into full view on the second. But as she flung the door open, it stopped midway and bounced back at her. The broad back of a U.S. Marine blocked the way. He turned and smiled at her. Karen stepped around him and walked/danced toward the makeshift stage. USMC Lance Corporal Dick Murphy sang out with the lyric, "One of these nights, we're gonna find out, pretty momma, what turns on your lights." She thought that later, after the bar closed, he might just be allowed to do that.

[stoney]

I'm wrong. It wasn't the Elbow Room she worked at, it was the Night Owl, now Griff's.

[stoney]

ABEARANCE
C H A N C E 2E-Tr^(>.5cncr-D^'.ch l't:ca S^->i5y.A;::I29.1379
TONIGHT—SUN., APR. 29th
"CHESTY MORGAN"
— 73-23 - 36
SUING 1$ ftllltVlNGI LAST OPPORTUNITY
S M O T W i i ^ H K p T U s - CCMCHAX* 13 CO
NIGHT OWL LOUNGE
728Columbia Si • Utca .
uniiiiiiiiimi

This didn't turn out good, because I can't C&P on this board. But the ad was advertising Chesty Morgan, 73-23-36 in 1979 at the Night Owl.

[dgriffin]

Jan 2, 2010 17:32:12 GMT -5 @stoney said:

I'm wrong. It wasn't the Elbow Room she worked at, it was the Night Owl, now Griff's.

Not to worry. We'll get it right before Hollywood finds us.

See following, too: (My god, the girl was only 17.)

Depending upon your browser, keep clicking the image until it's large enough to read.

www.windsweptpress.com/images/kill ages.jpg[/img]