By Lydia Hope Wilen
Growing up in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, in addition to Uncle Sam May I Cross Your River and Hit the Penny, my other favorite game was Stoopball. All we needed to play was a stoop and a Spalding (a high-bouncer that looked like a pink, bald tennis ball). Once I moved to Manhattan’s Upper West Side, I had my choice of stoops.
All I needed was a Spalding and someone who wanted to play.
So why all these neighborhood stoops? The centuries-old Upper West Side architecture primarily consisted of row houses (also known as brownstones and townhouses) with a mix of architectural styles: Renaissance Revival, Beaux-Arts, and some ornate Victorian iron detailing thrown in. Stoops were always a stylish and, most of all, a practical part of the buildings…and with good reason.
Sure, stoops could be decorated for holidays (you saw one in WSR for Valentine’s Day and before that for Halloween). Stoops are wonderful for sitting and socializing with neighbors. But why were stoops a blessing in the late 1800s? Wanna guess?
Here’s some background information to help make guessing easier: The word “stoop” is from the Dutch word “stoep” and means “step” or “porch.” The early Dutch settlers had built their Netherlands homes with steps leading to the front door, protecting them from flooding. It worked for them in the Netherlands, and, eventually, the flight of steps worked here as well, but for a different reason.
How is the guessing going? I’ll give you one last hint. It’s ironic that “stoop” rhymes with “poop.” Give up? Okay, here’s the stoop scoop:
Before subways, buses, cars, bikes, and scooters, there were horses – 200,000 horses – on the streets of New York City. Each of the 200,000 horses was responsible for between 15 to 30 pounds of manure per day (that’s a whopping, slopping three-to-six million pounds). And let’s not forget 40,000 gallons of horse urine per day. And you complained before the Pooper Scooper Law was enacted?
If you’re lucky enough to have a stoop, you may want to decorate it on occasion, or sit on it, weather permitting, and if you have a Spaulding, well you can try your hand at the sport of Stoopball. You’d be in good company. Before he began his legendary Hall of Fame baseball career, Sandy Koufax loved to play Stoopball. Brooklyn born sportscaster Marv Albert missed the game so much after he left Brooklyn that he had a stoop added to his house in the suburbs. Might have been easier to just move to the Upper West Side.
So now you know how and why the Upper West Side came to be steeped in stoops.
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Interesting, but are you saying there were no sidewalks back then? Were the streets paved? How would a stoop keep you from getting your feet filthy? The only way I can imagine it helped would be if carriages could pull up directly in front of the steps, which would mean no sidewalks. Also, didn’t people walk everywhere back then? They would have gotten filthy regardless of stoops.
Were there civil servants tasked with scooping up manure? More investigation requested 🙂 The WSR needs a history column.
…no, the streets of Manhattan did not come pre-paved or pre-sidewalked.
You’re correct: There were no sidewalks back then.
Just bike lanes.
There were bicycles whizzing by in front of every house. The steps on the stoop gave the residents protection from the two-wheeled dangers.
Ah, the good old days.
Spalding, not Spaulding
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaldeen
Spaldeen, if you’re from Brooklyn.
Or the Bronx!
Or Queens
Thanks! Fixed.
So what does a stoop have to do with all the horse poop?
Grew up in a brownstone in Philly and we played stoopball with a SpaldEEN! Haha! Philly dialect!
Seriously? Row houses had separate entrances under the stoop for deliveries, servants (yes, middle class owners had cooks and housekeepers) maintenance, utilities which were often on or below the ground floor. The family and guests would enter in the parlor floor up the stoop.
Totally agree with this comment. Unlike other cities with space between houses allowing for “alley ways” to the back of the property for servants and deliveries, New York row houses were built with front entrances to a ground floor under the stoop.
What a great history of the origin of stoops. I wonder whether anyone ever entertained Congestion Pricing for horse manure back in those days. I guess that if we tax people for driving on City streets we might find an increase in commuting by horse.
In Chicago the game was called Pinners and we bounced the Spaulding against a curb. The best home runs were if you cleared the garage roof. Stopps are more poetic and varied (certainly NYC) and curbs are more flat, wide and unadorned (certainly Chicago).
Fun and informative!
Informative and entertaining piece about a part of all of our UWS lives. Even if we do not live in a brownstone we walk by them all of the time. I always thought the entrances to the main living quarters were raised in order to allow more light into those parts of the house.
I must admit that I have never seen anyone playing stoop ball where I walk on the UWS.
So happy to see Lydia has made another contribution to the WSR. Judging by the comments, so far, Lydia has sparked conversations and memories. Nice going.
I grew up in Queens (1940/50s) on a block of single family houses. Many had steps where “stoop ball” could be played. If there was not one nearby, the curb was used. I believe that the “spaldeens” were actually the inside of tennis ball that were defective or left over.
Although the steps leading up to the houses in our block looked nothing likes the ones in Manhattan, they were called “stoops.” I’m sure it came from out parents, who mostly grew up in Manhattan.
Five points if you catch it on one bounce. Ten if you catch it on a fly. One hundred points if you hit the points of the step and catch it on the fly.
This is why cars and trucks were seen as a huge improvement. But urbanists hate cars so much that they cannot see this.
Enjoyed playing stoop ball while growing up. Now I know how the “playing field” came to be. Many thanks!
Good article.
Please follow-up with part 2:
When – and why – did the majority of UWS stoops disappear?
In the 1950/1960s.many of the UWS townhouses were turned into apartment houses with apartments on each floor. The stoop would enter an apartment, so they were removed or not used and the entrance to the building was at street level.
So interesting! Thank you for enlightening us!!!
Love the history behind stoops. Like Gidget, I grew up in West Philly (Go Eagles!) in a row house (50’s- 60’s); we never called them brownstones: no way near majestic. We played a lot of stoopball, wallball and stickball and Bill Cosby’s buck-buck. Love the article and the pleasant trip down memory lane. Need that break in this day and time.
As always, I learn something new from Lydia‘s articles. I have great memories of playing on my grandparents’ stoop as a kid in Brooklyn.
‘Stoopball’ sounds like a variation of Three Flies Up, which we played against pre-war highrises on the upper east side, circa 1970. My family lived on east 96th street, a major through street, so wayward balls (always Spaldeen) were often carried off between the wheels of cars, tracks, and buses…
Townhouses, rowhouses and even mansions in many old US cities such as New York along with countless European urban areas across UK and elsewhere in Europe long had fully or partially below grade levels (so called “English Basements”).
In heyday when such homes were built (1700’s through early 1900’s) most if not all such homes were occupied by well off middle to upper class households and would have been staffed with servants.
Front steps allowed the family, their guests and anyone else above servant class direct entry to main/parlour floor. Servants, tradesmen, deliveries and everyone else below status of family entered via basement.
This whole Upstairs/Downstairs way of life began to collapse post WWI years if not bit before in large part due to the “servant problem”. Middle-class and even above housewives tasked with running a home on their own found it ludicrous to stop what they were doing in kitchen (almost always located in basements of rowhouses) and go up to main level to answer door and so on.
People also found it bothering due to convention having to trudge up and down a flight of stairs to enter or leave their own homes.
Beginning in early 1900’s many rowhouses began to lose their front “steps” as owners had facades redone. Entrance/exit was moved to lower floor with perhaps two doors; main one for family/guest and another for tradesmen and others.
Front stoops were also removed in response to street widening programs carried out by city. When walking along certain brownstone blocks you’ll notice rowhouses without stoops often have more sidewalk space in front than those that do.
Another tidbit about NYC rowhouse “steps”
Void under front porches of rowhouses often lead to or were part of area used to store coal deliveries.
Though most are long since gone when walking along a NYC street you may come along what appears to be a manhole cover on sidewalk in front of a building. Those were covers for “coal holes” that lead to a coal bins located under sidewalks.
https://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com/tag/coal-hole-covers-new-york-city/
https://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com/2012/08/16/a-brooklyn-neighborhoods-lovely-coal-hole-covers/
I don’t see you mentioning one of the most important tools back in the 1800’s on bottom…later on the top, of the stoops when you’re entering your home…
BOOT SCRAPERS!
The scrapers appeared at the end of the 18th century, at the same time as the sidewalks and abounded in the 19th century big cities, in the times of horse-drawn carriages and dirt roads. Originally placed directly on foot paths, some were banned as a danger to public safety and placed in niches in the facades.
Just noticed Boot Scrapers on Charles St. NYC
There are a few of these still there on UWS stoops
Yes! There are… the end of West 80th St. towards Riverside Drive. I’ve seen many around that area of private one family brownstones, just not the stoops, but also the left side entrance’s to the homes without stoops.
Film “Life With Father” depicts rowhouse/brownstone living in 1800’s New York City.
Though filmed entirely on lots at Warner Brothers Burbank Studios, great attention was paid to period details.
Even with boot scrapers (which not everyone used) front steps were usually fouled with all sorts. Horse and dog manure, soot from all that coal burning along with god knows what else. As part of proper housekeeping those steps were scrubbed at least once per week.
New York, Boston, Baltimore across pond in UK or rest of Europe, it didn’t matter. If a housewife couldn’t afford a servant to clean those steps she herself was out there with bucket and scrub brush.
https://www.baltimoremagazine.com/section/historypolitics/baltimore-marble-step-scrubbing-highlandtown-history/
https://www.oldtownhome.com/2013/9/25/These-Boot-Scrapers-Were-Made-for-Cleaning/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUbKqgm2AHI
Emma wrote:
“Totally agree with this comment. Unlike other cities with space between houses allowing for “alley ways” to the back of the property for servants and deliveries, ”
Generally no, rowhouses/townhomes in city didn’t go in for rear courtyards and alleyways found elsewhere.
There are however a few exceptions such as Strivers Row in Harlem.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Nicholas_Historic_District
https://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2023/03/the-fletcher-henderson-house-228-west.html
https://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-1893-max-feist-house-245-west-139th.html
In response to several comments about paved streets in NYC.
https://www.untappedcities.com/nyc-last-wooden-sidewalk-city-reliquary/
By 1800’s streets were paved and there were sidewalks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UERgaTAPKb4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UERgaTAPKb4
As for overall cleanliness and hygiene of NYC streets in 1800’s at least much depended upon area in question. There was a world of difference between say UWS and Five Points Slum or even Hell’s Kitchen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rqww2-qrlZ4
Lisa wrote:
“Were there civil servants tasked with scooping up manure? More investigation requested..”
NYC did not establish a department of sanitation until 1881, it did little to improve situation of city streets however that were caked with unimaginable layers of filth.
” Enter George Waring, hired as commissioner in the Department of Street Cleaning in 1895. He treated the department as an army, mandating that street cleaners wear white uniforms to convey a sense of cleanliness. Hence their nickname, the “White Wings.”
https://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com/2008/08/11/when-the-white-wings-cleaned-up-new-york/
https://colgeorgewaring.weebly.com/white-wings.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbpMNnk4jM8
Quite honestly living in a rowhouse with steps didn’t do much against foul stench penetrating NYC homes at the time. This was more so during warmer times of year which explains why as with cities across USA and Europe anyone who could fled for the fresh air of the country or seaside.
The stoops sure do narrow down the sidewalks. There are some really large trees on these side streets too. The worst is when the garbage is out on the curbs and the street is further narrowed by snow. Occasionally, when passing a pedestrian going the opposite way I say, “pretty soon I am going to have to go on a diet to walk down this street”. Occasionally it gets a laugh.
Just sayin’: where I grew up in Queens the preferred ball for stoop ball (and stickball) was a “Pennsy Pinky”. Spaldeens had a tendency to split when hit with a stickball bat, but the pinkys held up!😊