The Stories Your House Could Tell: 15 Wellington Court

December 28, 1905: Looking North from Glenwood Road Just Before All Hell Broke Loose

A Japanese Zelkova tree grows in front of 15 Wellington Court. Arborists describe the Zelkova as “a tough urban tree,” a phrase befitting most of the occupants of that house and its neighbors over the years. After all, home ownership in Flatbush has never been for the faint of heart. For instance, when this empty stretch was first surveyed and mapped by the City in 1903, its eastern border consisted of a two-track railroad sitting discretely below grade in a cut, powered by overhead catenary wires. The train would descend further as it entered the Fiske Terrace stop, 200 feet away, in order to pass UNDER the Long Island Railroad bridge at the south end of the station. 

December 4, 1905 Fiske Terrace Station Looking Northeast. All This Will Soon Be Buried
(Photo courtesy of Paul Matus) 

But by December of 1905, the Grade Crossing Elimination Commission would start to change all that, bringing the railbed up to street level over the next two years. In the process, steam locomotives temporarily returned as the Brighton line was reconfigured in a noisy mess, widening it to four tracks powered by third rails as it passed OVER the newly suppressed LIRR. 

April 16, 1907: Looking South from Wellington to Temporary Ave H Footbridge

April 17, 1907: Looking South Toward LIRR from Temporary Ave H Footbridge

April 26, 1907: Looking South from same Ave H Footbridge. New spur carries excavated dirt.

April 16, 1907: Steam Shovel at Foster Ave Looking North

July 19, 1907: Looking North from Wellington - Fiske Terrace on Right

During this hubbub the John R. Corbin Company erected many of the houses on the block. Given the sight of behemoth steam shovels, work gangs, steam engine shuttles and ongoing construction, many of the initial sales appear to have been to investors. Thus, 15 Wellington’s first owner-occupants did not arrive until the summer of 1907: Everett & Emma Haymaker and their three sons. The Haymakers were Ohio natives who did not settle anywhere for long because Everett’s skill as a mechanical draftsman was much in demand. They called New Hampshire, Maryland and Virginia home before Brooklyn – and Ohio, Pennsylvania and South Carolina thereafter. By 1913 they had moved out and were succeeded by the Haggerty family.

1910 Apr 20: US  Census. 15 Wellington - Rows 90-94 - Haymaker Family

1920s: Haymakers at 258 Congress St in Charleston

Thomas Haggerty and his wife Ellen were children of Irish Potato Famine immigrants. Born in 1870, Thomas was a successful printer able to afford a live-in maid to assist with the Haggerty’s three children. In 1920 he formed a home construction business with two other Brooklynites but three weeks after the October 1929 stock market crash he died suddenly, leaving his family an estate that principally consisted of their house. Ellen’s three children were strivers. Thomas Jr. formed a winning baseball team of local boys he called “The Wellingtons” that played in a sandlot league at the Parade Grounds before teaching and clerking called. Helen became a public school teacher, while Daniel was elected President of the Kappa Tau Lambda fraternity at St. Francis College and then went to work for a maritime shipping company. 

1920 US Census Showing Haggerty Family at 15 Wellington

 

 

30 Oct 1936 Dan Haggerty (L) accepting award from Brooklyn Daily Eagle

 

All the Haggertys were fervent supporters of FDR and his New Deal. But alas the family fell behind on their mortgage, refinanced with the New Deal’s Home Owner Loan Corp (HOLC), only to be foreclosed in the Spring of 1940, forcing their relocation to a rented floor at 420 Marlborough Road. The children all married Brooklyn spouses and remained in Flatbush, with Thomas, his wife Mae and their son Martin renting a floor at 755 Westminster for more than a decade.

1940 NYC Tax Photo

The next owners were Robert Drummond, an accountant, and his spouse Marian Riehl, a teacher. Robert’s grandfather was a Civil War veteran and Marian was a Flatbush resident active with the Wells Memorial Presbyterian Church at the corner of Argyle and Glenwood Roads where the couple was married in 1934. Robert was the president of the Men’s Club of the Plymouth Church in Brooklyn Heights and served on the Board of Governors of the Federal Grand Jurors Association in the old Eastern District courthouse on Adams Street. Following the death of Robert, Marian sold the home to Stephen and Madeleine Appell in 1974. 

The Appells bought the house on the advice of the Grau family, then living on Rugby Road at the foot of Wellington Court. The tip was conveyed to Madi’s mother, who had taught the Graus’ children at PS 217.

Circa 1980: Madi, Steve & a young Sanford

1983 NYC Tax Photo

Madi at Brooklyn College Showing  
her Jimmy Carter Button

Steve, a graduate of Cornell University and Rutgers Law School, specialized in labor and employment law with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), while also serving as president of Local 29 and national executive vice-president of the NLRB Union. He was also a partner in, and of counsel to, law firms representing unions, workers, and benefit funds. Madi meanwhile was an art teacher at FDR High School for many years before becoming a principal. She and Steve are proud of their sons Sanford, Bradley and Andrew who have blessed them with four grandchildren. 

Steve Appell at EMJC

Steve and Madi recalled “good memories of our children growing up on the block, enjoying watching the trains pass by at street level, and playing ball with their friends for endless hours – back then there was very little traffic or parking on the street.” Now retired from their successful careers, they keep busy with volunteer work and pursuing their many interests. For Madi, that would be as a renowned quilt artist, and for Steve teaching at Brooklyn College’s Lifelong Learning program, volunteering at Sean Casey Animal Rescue and helping out at the East Midwood Jewish Center (EMJC) in every way imaginable. 

A few years ago Steve was honored at the EMJC for his decades of service. A rabbi there described Steve and Madi this way: “They are well respected for their service to their family and our community. They work hard and are not afraid to take on a challenge. When given the choice, they choose to step up and make a difference. They do it because they can and we are all the more blessed for it.” Amen.

15 Wellington Court