Celebrity Spotted 100 Years Ago

In the early part of the 20th Century, if you were one of the multitude of immigrants living in New York City, there’s a good chance you were living in a tenement on the lower east side.

The conditions were cramped and lacked most of the modernization of the times. For example, many tenements lacked electricity and indoor plumbing to support bathrooms. It is likely that despite the poor conditions many felt this was still better that the conditions they had come from and finding work meant the possibility of moving up.

With so much obvious squalor there were private aid societies that sought to improve the conditions for the women and children who suffered the most. Settlement houses, which might provide benefits like education, childcare, healthcare and activities for the impoverished began to appear.

Through the auspices of a pair of benefactors, a camp was founded to provide an escape for children and often the whole family . One of these camps was located in Western CT, on a farm in Stepney.

One of the beneficiaries of this opportunity may have been actor James Cagney and his family. The image above is a positive processed from several negatives in the Monroe Historical Society’s collection. Do you want to try and spot him? If so, continue reading here.