” (see the accompanying image with the relevant line highlighted in yellow click to enlarge).īorn in Poland, Lubin, an inventor of many agricultural contraptions, also lived in London Attleboro, Massachusetts Sacramento and Rome, among other places. Assuming the Mail article is accurate (admittedly, when it comes to newspaper reporting, it’s not always wise to assume), it’s possible Lubin either lived in 278 or at least owned it. before Houdini, The Sydney Mail, Ap(Source image: Google News archive)Īfter a bit of digging in the Google News archive, I found an article in the April 8, 1903, issue of The Sydney Mail, which mentions inventor and agriculturalist “ David Lubin, of 278 West 113th Street, New York. * However, neither of their bios- Houdini!!! The Career of Ehrich Weiss or The Secret Life, respectively-includes any information about homeownership before 1904.Īrticle mentioning David Lubin, a possible owner and resident of 278 W. My assumption is that serious Houdini researchers and biography authors, such as Kenneth Silverman and Kalush and Sloman, already checked the physical records dated before 1979. Here’s a screen capture of that search (click to enlarge): Since online city records go back to 1966, it’s unclear why the records for 278 end at 1979. The City of New York’s Automated City Register Information System (ACRIS) records for the Houdini property ( Block 1828, Lot 59) go back only to 1979, when Marie Hinson (née Rahner), Bess Houdini’s sister, was the owner. But who owned the home, and possibly lived in it, before Houdini purchased it in 1904?Īccording to real-estate websites, such as Zillow and Trulia, the 6,008-square-foot home was built in 1890 (five years earlier than what William Kalush and Larry Sloman wrote in their biography, The Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of America’s First Superhero). For more than two decades, Houdini and his family lived in the 12-room brownstone until the iconic escapologist’s death in 1926. and even got a glimpse inside last year when the New York Daily News interviewed Fred Thomas, the current owner. We know a few things about Harry Houdini’s New York City home at 278 W. David Lubin (1849–1919), merchant, inventor, agriculturalist (Photo: Wikimedia Commons, public domain)
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