Indenture - Minnie Simon Buys House

The Simons bought 95 Allen St.;
Owned house from 1921 to 1928
Purchased from Germans;
Sold to 2 Italian brothers

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Minnie was the named buyer.

More questions: Documents can raise as many questions as they answer.

For example, we know that Abraham Simon was able to buy the six-unit building at 95 Allen Street on April 1, 1921. And we know that as of June 8, 1900, the day the census taker came, the Simon family was living at 95 Allen, and they were renting. But when they moved in, we don't know.

We know that by June 23, 1910, when Morris took out his Petition for Naturalization, he was living with his wife, Esther, and their first two sons, Sidney and Arthur, in the house of his father-in-law at 95 Allen.

And we know that in 1920, when the census taker came calling, the family was at home on the farm in Ulster County. By that time, the family numbered six: Morris, Esther, Sidney and Arthur, plus Larry who was born in 1915, and Sam, who arrived just six months before the census taker. But we don't know when they moved to the farm.

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Sidney (left), Larry and Arthur (right) in
only known photo taken on family farm.

The farm years: They could become a chapter here, due to the recent revelation that Ulster County had been a hotbed of Jewish farming during the years that Abraham Simon had his farm.

My father boasted that Grandpa Simon had the largest fruit farm in all of Ulster County. We may discover whether or not this was so, because research on the subject could fall into our lap, judging from recent postings to the Belarus newsgroup.

The great granddaughter of another Ulster County Jewish farmer came across the book, "Our Jewish Farmers," by Gabriel Davidson (L.B. Fischer Publishing Corp., NY, 1943). The book, she said, deals with the history of the Jewish Agricultural and Industrial Aid Society, which provided mortgages to many Jewish would-be farmers in the early years of the century.

While land records are in the Ulster County court- house, loan applications and records of mortgages given by the Jewish Agricultural Society are now in the archives of the American Jewish Historical Society in Boston.

Abraham Simon was never an active participant in the farm, which was run by Morris Rubenstein until Morris got sick, leading to the loss of one and then both his legs. But during the farm years, Grandpa Simon and Chippa Mendel (called Minnie in documents) would often come to spend the Sabbath.

Coals to Newcastle: My father remembered that his grandfather always brought a chicken and challah with them up from the city. "We told him we had chicken and flour to make challah because we were on a farm," Larry Rogers said. "But that wasn't the point. He had to be sure they were strictly Kosher."

Deed made in Minnie's name
In records of March 31, 1921

STATUTORY FORM A
FEES PAID $2.50 USIR STAMPS $18.50 CANCELLED.*

*United States Internal Revenue tax based on purchase price,
believed at this time to be $1.10 per $1,000 of purchase price.

"THIS INDENTURE, made the
31^st day of March, nineteen hundred and, twenty one

between DORA ROHRBERG, ROSA ROHRBERG, EMMA SCHOENHERR AND HUGO HILDENBRAND
(all heirs at law all next of kin of Otto Hildenbrand and Julianna Hildenbrand HIS WIFE, dece sed) and
AMELIA HILDENBRAND, wife of Hugo Hildenbrand, parties of the first part,

and MINNIE SIMON
residing at No. 95 Allen Street, New York City

WITNESSETH, that the parties of the first,

in consideration of One Hundred ($100) Dollars,
lawful money of the United States,
and other good and valuable consideration
paid by the party of the second part,

do hereby grant and release unto
the party of the second part,
her heirs and assigns forever,

all that certain lot, piece or parcel of land,
with the buildings and improvements thereon
erected, situate, lying and being
in the Borough of Manhattan City and State of New York,

bounded and described as follows: ...

… Said premises being known by the street
No. 95 Allen Street, New York City.

SUBJECT to a mortgage for Ten Thousand ($10,000) dollars on which there is now the sum of Ninety-nine hundred ($9,900) Dollars and accrued interest.

SUBJECT to monthly tenancies and a lease, Max B. Menachem and Yessula Menachem.

SUBJECT to a purchase money mortgage for Eight thousand ($8,000) dollars given to secure the payment of a part of the purchase price and intended to be recorded simultaneously herewith."

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Deed dated May 23, 1928 shows that Minnie Simon
sold 95 Allen Street to Albert and David Confino.

Ethnic shifts: The Simons had purchased the building from "the heirs of Otto and Julianna Hildenbrand," a German-sounding name. Seven years later, on March 23, 1928, they sold the building to David and Albert Confino, Sephardic Jews. The Confino family was one of many Sephardic Jewish families who settled in the neighborhood.

A deed in the Abstract Index of the Register of New York County, for Index lot no. 23, Block 414, shows that the building was sold "Subject to a consolidated mortgage of $14,000 and a purchase money mortgage of $6,000." However, the actual price is not clear. "The selling price," the clerk said, with an air of mystery, "is on another deed."

Recent History: Section 2 of the multi-volume paperback "blue book," kept in the titles section of the old Hall of Records, indicates that on September 28, 1982, when 95 Allen Street last changed hands, its assessed value was $143,000.

White building is 95 Allen Street; digital photos were taken the summer of 1998.	Pizza on one side; Chinese on the other. Photos by Susan Rogers.