A Man Offered to Buy Mrs. Rausch's House
Feb 25, 2022 20:49:43 GMT -5
Joe, ziki, and 1 more like this
Post by Sue on Feb 25, 2022 20:49:43 GMT -5
Just days after his arrest, someone was ready to put down money to purchase Hauptmann's home and turn it into a museum!
Too bad this prospective buyer was not able to purchase the Hauptmann home, given the house was renovated
only a few, short years ago!
This is another article that was published in The New York Sun by Mabel Greene.
September 25, 1934
"Would Buy Hauptmann Home"
Little House in Bronx Is Sought by Man
for Exhibition Purposes.
By MABEL GREENE
And now comes the news that Mrs. Paulina Rausch's modest little house at 1279 East 222d street, the Bronx, is wanted
for "exhibition purposes" as the house in which Bruno Hauptmann made his home. Yes, Mrs. Rausch can sell her place
any time she takes the notion, or at such time when she decides that she really is bored with having people swarm to
her home just to look at "the Hauptmann house."
A Federal agent on duty at the house was authority today for the information that a man has offered to buy Mrs.
Rausch's house, "lock, stock and barrel for exhibition purposes." The would-be purchaser looked over the place
yesterday, the agent said, and seemed to be satisfied that its purchase by him would yield a good income from the
curious. Mrs. Rausch's on the subject haven's been revealed.
But there is one thing certain: Mrs. Rausch is learning at first hand just what the old expression "No more privacy than
a fishbowl" can mean. It is a safe bet that she never appreciated the meaning of the phrase as she has since last
Thursday when news of the discovery of $13,790 of the Lindbergh ransom money in Hauptmann's possession began
to attract hordes of the curious to her home, where Hauptmann lived with his wife and ten-months-old son.
Her modest two-story stucco house and the weathered little wooden garage where the money was found buried, are
virtually in a state of siege. The fact that the house stands on a slightly terraced plot affords a small degree of
protection, since the thousands of neck-craning spectators are unable to peer directly through the windows. One and
all, the inquisitive visitors want to see rooms where Hauptmann lived, and they're disappointed when they learn
that the Federal officers will admit no one. Even newspaper reporters and photographers continue to be barred,
and The Sun reporter who inspected the Hauptmann flat last Friday is the only person, aside from the authorities,
who has seen the interior.
Yesterday the eight policemen on guard detail continued to keep moving the scores of automobiles that approached
the house, and saw to it that the hundreds of men, women and children of all ages who came to stare, approached
no closer than across the street. Grocery and butcher's delivery boys, as well as the numerous personal friends who
suddenly have been seized with a desire to visit Mrs. Rausch were all questioned before being admitted to the premises.
Movies as an Alternative
"No, ma'am," a genial Irish patrolman told a nervous little mother who had brought her three children, all under ten
years of age, to see the house. "Not a chance of getting inside. You'll have to take the family to the movies, I guess."
A car containing three women and bearing a Connecticut license plate, came along early in the day just as a harassed
camera man gave up trying to coax the elderly Mrs. Rausch outside for additional pictures. The sightseers were not
numerous, but Mrs. Rausch was weary of of the spotlight.
"Where's the Hauptmann house?" inquired the driver. "These ladies wanna to see the Hauptmann house."
"Two blocks down the street," said the grouchy camera man. "It's a red brick place--you can't miss it." And off the
party drove, to park further along the street awhile, before returning happily to Connecticut.
Boys and girls just out of school lingered across the roadway on their way home; mothers and fathers came to hunt
them and paused to gossip and stare. They pointed out the radio aerial strung from the living room window to a
tree near the garage, and told one another in low tones that it was an overhead wire put up by Hauptmann to sound
an alarm if any one molested his hidden board.
No Souvenirs Available
Souvenir hunters yesterday met with little success, since police kept them from the vicinity of the garage where a
small neighbor boy two days ago picked up two books--tossed aside by the police in their money search--which
contained the name and address of the much-sought-for Isidore Fisch.
The sightseers tried in every imaginable way to reach the barricaded house, several even trying to approach it from
the rear by way of the next street, only to be thwarted by two policemen on guard at the junction of Needham avenue
and 223d street.
"I bet if you looked under those tomato vines you'd find a rubberneck peeking at the house," one disgusted officer said,
pointing to the neat garden at the rear of the house.
Three half-grown boys clambered into the branches of a tree directly across the street in their endeavor to get a look
into the top floor, four-room apartment, and others climbed the porch roofs on nearby houses.
Window Good for Revenue
The two windows of at least one flat overlooking the Hauptmann flat have never been empty of faces during the last
four days--an observer wonders if the owner has been renting space the curious--and a peddler with field glasses for
rent does a thriving business.
Hot-dog venders and candy salesmen found fewer customers yesterday than Sunday afternoon when it was estimated
that at least ten thousand persons visited the neighborhood, but they had a profitable trade. Newsboys hawking new
editions made the rounds in the late afternoon, finding ready purchasers among the men and women who stood,
simply staring at the house and garage, and doing nothing else.
Mrs. Rausch, who sat on the front steps with her grandson and his wife during most of Friday, Saturday and Sunday
afternoons, remained secluded behind drawn window curtains nearly all day yesterday. She was beginning to feel
the strain of being Exhibit A in a famous kidnap-murder case.
Friday and Saturday it was all amusing. Even on Sunday it was exciting.
CONTINUED