Eyes on the Street

by Robert Kanigel

  Both were central Pennsylvania natives: See JJ, “Reading, Writing, and Love-Apples”; “Captain James Boyd Robison Found Dead,” Democratic Sentinel, March 5, 1909; federal censuses from 1870–1920; Historical and Biographical Annals of Columbia and Montour Counties, Pennsylvania (Columbia County, PA: J. H. Beers & Co., 1915); Book of Biographies of the Seventeenth Congressional District (Chicago: Biographical Publishing Company, 1899); Marc Fritz, “Robison Family Endured Un-Civil War,” http://www.​robison​suncivilwar.​blog​spot.​com, distilled from Gertrude Keller Johnston, Dear Pa…And So It Goes (Harrisburg, PA: Business Service Company, 1971); genealogical chart of Robisons and Butzners compiled by Bess Robison Butzner, Burns, 4/7; Souvenir Views of the State Normal School, Bloomsburg, PA, and school catalogs from the period; thanks to Robert Dunkelberger, Bloomsburg University archivist, for supplying these and other information from the Normal School archives on the Robisons.

  Bessie wasn’t a teacher anymore: American Journal of Nursing (1904), p. 555, records “Miss Bessie Robison admitted to membership” in the Philadelphia Polyclinic Alumnae Association on March 3, 1904; “The Philadelphia Polyclinic and College for Graduates in Medicine,” Trained Nurse and Hospital Review 32 (1904): 419: “The graduating exercises of the Polyclinic School for Nurses was held April 29 at the hospital,” diplomas presented to fifteen young women, including Bessie M. Robison; Roberta Mayhew West, History of Nursing in Pennsylvania (Pennsylvania State Nurses’ Association, 1938), pp. 623–27. In an interview, the late Kay Butzner, Jane’s sister-in-law, says Bessie was simply bored with teaching in rural Pennsylvania and wanted to try life in the big city.

  what could you expect: Wachtel, p. 426.

  West Virginia mining town: Chavez, Duer, and Fang, p. 46.

  pile of undergarments: Interview, Jim Jacobs.

  Dr. Butzner had come: Greene and Greene, Butzner Family History; see also Matter, p. 150; Wachtel, p. 44; (Fredericksburg) Free Lance, April 27, 1915, on death of William J. Butzner; Garrett Epps, “The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals Is Losing a Star: Uncle Billy’s Boy,” (Richmond) Style Weekly, January 1, 1980; “Office of Commonwealth’s Attorney to be Filled by Billy Butzner,” Daily Star, December 31, 1909; young Dr. Butzner’s early whereabouts in Scranton traced through city directories of those years; Philadelphia Medical Journal, May 28, 1904, p. 1049.

  “All the field hands”: Greene and Greene, Butzner Family History, p. 79.

  still getting mail: President’s Office, American National Red Cross, Pennsylvania State Branch to Bessie M. Robinson [sic], at 1622 Summer Street, Philadelphia, December 12, 1908, Burns, 24:1.

  three hours on the through train: Email, rail expert Herb Harwood, who reports “at least two through-trips a day each way, each taking roughly three hours,” between Scranton and Philadelphia.

  “a quiet one”: (Bloomsburg, PA) Columbian March 25, 1909.

  Soon after they married: Interview, Jim Jacobs.

  his favorite pie: Interview, Jim Jacobs; see also Sandra Martin, “An Urban Legend,” p. 84.

  “and love and affection”: Indenture, August 6, 1918, John D. Butzner to Bess Robison Butzner, DBK no. 294, p. 228, Lackawanna County deedbook.

  “I learned to get out early”: Wachtel, p. 41.

  he’d seemed fine: “He was the picture of health and brightness,” (Fredericksburg) Free Lance, August 10, 1951.

  a house at 1712 Monroe Avenue: Matter, p. 33. From the sidewalk, the house can seem as if it had a real third floor. But despite pediment, elaborated window treatment, and vestigial porch suggesting otherwise, it was really just an attic.

  “a cheerful place”: Wachtel, p. 41. Years later, a Jewish friend, David Gurin, told Jane how the sole surviving remnant of his Orthodox childhood was that, on Friday nights in his house as an adult, there were no television, no electronics, no distractions, that they were all just there with each other. Replied Jane: “That’s how I spent every night.”

  “no mean streak”: Interview, Toshiko Adilman.

  “That’s puddingstone!”: Jane Jacobs, “What Would I Have Been if I Hadn’t Been a Writer,” response to editor’s query, 1994, Burns, 6:5.

  a distaste for profligacy: Interview, Jim Jacobs.

  “carrying on dialogues”: Warren, p. 16; Fulford, “Radical Dreamer.”

  “the lakes turned over”: Early draft, EofC, Burns, 8:6.

  Sabilla Bodine: Thanks to Decker Butzner and Burgin Jacobs for letting me see the Sabilla Bodine compilation.

  “Greetings to you”: Burns, 2:1.

  “endless store”: Interview, Jim Jacobs.

  “intellectually very curious”: Wachtel, p. 42.

  resign from Daughters of the American Revolution: Interview, Jane Henderson.

  artificial logs: JJ to her mother, December 30, 1974, Burns, 4.

  “the night supervising nurse”: Matter, p. 11.

  “how limited their lives were”: Wachtel, p. 44.

  hadn’t “come to grips”: JJ to Jason Epstein, January 8, 1975, Random House Papers, ColumbiaRare.

  “quite prissy”: Wachtel, p. 44.

  “to this day astonishes me”: JJ to John S. Zinsser, December 22, 1950, Burns, 22:9.

  Don’t sing that: Interview, Jim Jacobs.

  minefield of small-town narrow-mindeness: Interview, Jim Jacobs.

  “I had to shut up”: Wachtel, p. 44.

  “the Patch”: Chavez, Duer, and Fang, p. 10.

  She traded cards…played pirates: Warren, p. 10.

  secrete treasures: D&L, p. 112.

  Chatauqua: JJ to Susan Wynn, September 18, 1997, Burns, 1:6.

  his favorite shirt: Decker Butzner’s remarks in “Memorial Ceremony and Portrait Unveiling in Honor of Honorable John D. Butzner, Jr.,” West’s Federal Reporter, vol. 464, F.3d, pp. XXXIX–XLI.

  tree in the parlor: Interviews, Jim Jacobs, Decker Butzner, Kay Butzner.

  “Bite off more”: Mary Robison Fawcett to JJ, 1996, Burns, 44:2.

  “I am pleased to see”: Matter, p. 170.

  “I’ve known a lot of bootleggers”: Interview, Decker Butzner.

  “relentless prohibitionist”: Alaska, p. 10.

  “Being in a family”: Matter, p. 13.

  “an island of hope”: Wachtel, p. 45.

  “could do anything”: Matter, p. 11. Jane’s sister, Betty, on the other hand, at least once did feel stymied. She wanted to become an architect, but Dr. Butzner discouraged her, seeing the field as inappropriate for a woman. “She thought it was ridiculous,” Betty’s daughter Carol Bier reports. But Betty yielded, turning instead to interior design.

  CHAPTER 2: OUTLAW

  “In those days”: Wachtel, p. 46.

  “misapprehension”: Wachtel, p. 46.

  downright jealous: Matter, p. 150.

  “didn’t listen much”: Matter, p. 11.

  book hidden beneath her desk: Matter, p. 15.

  “rather stupid”: Wachtel, p. 46.

  managed to get herself expelled: Lucia Jacobs, taped interview of JJ, 1992, courtesy of Prof. Jacobs; Wachtel, p. 46; Matter, p. 16.

  “I’m a busy man”: Interview, Kay Butzner.

  rubber boots: Interview, Jim Jacobs.

  “Which two pages?”: Harvey, p. 36.

  “She was always afraid of teachers”: Interview, Jim Jacobs.

  “the little girls who do best”: Ethics, p. 9.

  “what they’re supposed to do”: Books and Authors Luncheon, March 10, 1962, audio, New York City Municipal Archives, wnyc_LT9522.

  “I was an outlaw”: Lucia Jacobs, taped interview of JJ, 1992.

  “we went downtown to school”: Penny Fox, “Suburbs Do Not Suit Citified Author,” 1961, Burns.

  all of Scranton: Local history, including Anthracite’s role, drawn from “Scranton” in Writers’ Program, Pennsylvania: A Guide to the Keystone State (New York: Oxford University Press, 1940), pp. 322–29; David Crosby, Scranton Then and Now (Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia Publishing, 2011); Benson W. Rohrbeck, Scranton
’s Trolleys (Ben Rohrbeck Traction Publications, 1999); Fred J. Lauver, “A Walk Through the Rise and Fall of Anthracite Might,” Pennsylvania Heritage Magazine (winter 2001); “History of the Green Ridge Presbyterian Church” and “50th Anniversary of the Present Church Building, 1893–1943, Green Ridge Presbyterian Church,” both reviewed at Lackawanna Historical Society, Scranton.

  “the greatest man in the world”: Wachtel, p. 45.

  “meant much to me as a child”: EofC, p. 160.

  “There was some mixup”: Impressions (December 1931): 22.

  forever late to class: Grade book, 1929–30, Scranton Central High School, records furnished by Donna Zaleski. Jane may have been getting mixed messages at home. “Early risers,” Mr. Butzner liked to say, according to Jim Jacobs, “are conceited all morning and sleepy all afternoon.”

  “To Rupert Brooke”: Impressions (December 1931): 18.

  “a melodious laugh”: Carl Marzani, The Education of a Reluctant Radical, Book 2—Growing Up American (New York: Topical Books, 1993), pp. 78–79.

  “Of a Friend, Dead”: “Sonnet,” Impressions (May 1932): 19.

  Auslander: Jane Butzner, “Joseph Auslander,” Impressions (December 1932): 14.

  Carl Marzani: “Leftists in the Wilderness,” U.S. News & World Report, March 19, 1990, pp. 26–27.

  “on the tall side”: Carl Marzani, The Education of a Reluctant Radical, Book 2—Growing Up American (New York: Topical Books, 1993), p. 77.

  the honor roll: Impressions (June 1933).

  “getting Jane through high school”: Interviews, Jim Jacobs, Kay Butzner.

  Jane’s classmates included: Booklet, 50th Scranton High School reunion, May 14, 1983, with short biographical sketches of attendees, Burns, 38:5.

  “The moon”: “To a Teacher,” Impressions, ca. 1932.

  “I’m not all that different”: JJ to Stewart Brand, January 31, 1994, Burns.

  CHAPTER 3: LADIES’ NEST OF OWLS AND OTHER MILESTONES IN THE EDUCATION OF MISS JANE BUTZNER

  “rows of pinched faces”: Dark, p. 52.

  Powell doesn’t figure much: Margery W. Davies, Woman’s Place Is at the Typewriter (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1982); “Early Office Museum” website; Powell School of Business ads from the period; John Robert Gregg, Gregg Shorthand (New York: Gregg Publishing Company, ca. 1930), and other Gregg-related materials; interviews, Jim Jacobs, Esther Kiesling.

  high school diploma: Burns, FF1D17.

  “Her ambition”: Nellie B. Sergent, Younger Poets: An Anthology of American Secondary School Verse (New York: D. Appleton, 1932), p. 377.

  gobbled up: The Scranton Times bought the Republican in February 1934, while Jane was still working there.

  “doing routine items”: Matter, p. 3.

  “It was preposterous”: Interview, Katia Jacobs.

  “work for you for nothing”: JJ interview with Peter Gzowski, Ideas That Matter conference, 1997, videotape, Toronto Reference Library, no. 2345212.

  $18 a week: StL, Application for Federal Employment, November 27, 1943, and September 8, 1949; in email to author, March 18, 2013, Ned Jacobs sheds light on Jane’s arrangement with the paper.

  “nobody objected”: Dark, p. 53.

  “be my mentor”: JJ interview with Peter Gzowski, Ideas That Matter conference, 1997, videotape, Toronto Reference Library, no. 2345212. The mentor may have been an editor named Gordon Williams. See “Bess Butzner, Ex-Teacher-Nurse, Celebrates 90th Birthday Saturday,” Scrantonian, June 15, 1969.

  “my ‘journalism school’ ”: JJ to Hakim Hasan, February 28, 2001, Burns, 3:6. See also Matter, p. 189.

  see her father: Wachtel, p. 42.

  Medical Arts Building: Architectural plans of the office, and access to the premises, graciously provided by Lou Danzico, president, Management Enterprises, Scranton.

  mostly of English stock: CityWealth, p. 125.

  “snapping of a pitchfork”: CityWealth, p. 126.

  “different and interesting kind of life”: Matter, p. 3; Wachtel, p. 42.

  Well, now, Jane: Interview, Jane Henderson.

  noted Jane’s coming: Ann Butzner papers.

  The news squib didn’t need: CityWealth, chapter 9, pp. 124–34; Dark, p. 168; Denny Moore, “Sunshine Spread Between States,” Presbyterian Advance, September 15, 1932; “History of Markle School at Higgins,” Asheville Citizen, July 26, 1936; correspondence bearing on Higgins and Martha Robison, Markle Papers, RG 3, Series 5, Box 4, Folder 28, Rockefeller; see also partly illegible account about Martha Robison, probably September 1936, Burns; Gerald W. Gillette to J. I. Butzner, June 11, 1965, Burns, 12:10; “Miss Martha Robison Dies,” Morning Press (Bloomsburg), November 24, 1941; my account profits from a visit to the Higgins site, and from correspondence and interview with Annie Butzner, and from her papers; see also notes to chapter 1, on the Robisons.

  “wet, murky”: “Miss Robison Tells of Work in North Carolina Mountains,” no publication, no date, but from internal evidence about 1928, Burns.

  part of a still: Interview, Kay Butzner.

  “overwhelming conviction”: “Miss Robison Tells of Work in North Carolina Mountains,” no publication, no date, but from internal evidence about 1928, Burns.

  received a letter: Chronology established in Florence E. Quick [John Markle’s assistant] to A. S. Woods, July 29, 1930, Markle Papers, RG 3, Series 5, Box 4, Folder 28, Rockefeller. Markle was an uncle by marriage to Jane’s mother.

  “never dared think”: Martha E. Robison to Cousin John (Markle), November 14, 1929, Markle Papers, RG 3, Series 5, Box 4, Folder 28, Rockefeller.

  promised to give $25,000: John Markle to Martha E. Robison, January 14, 1930, Markle Papers, RG 3, Series 5, Box 4, Folder 28, Rockefeller.

  “The spaces are all ample”: C. T. Greenway to John Markle, May 9, 1931, Markle Papers, RG 3, Series 5, Box 4, Folder 28, Rockefeller.

  Film footage: Untitled Board of National Missions film, twelve minutes. Thanks to Diana Ruby Sanderson, Warren Wilson College.

  tightly tufted straw: Thanks to Annie Butzner for letting me see one of those brooms.

  On July 3, 1934: Martha E. Robison to Florence E. Quick, July 4, 1934, Markle Papers, RG 3, Series 5, Box 4, Folder 28, Rockefeller.

  Jane’s sister, Betty: Ann Butzner papers.

  “Girls’ club work”: Ann Butzner papers.

  “the largest gathering”: Ann Butzner papers.

  “We may mourn”: CityWealth, p. 129.

  never to have seen Higgins again: Interview, Jim Jacobs.

  “majestic folded hills”: CityWealth, p. 125.

  “make do with firelight”: CityWealth, p. 127.

  “the thrilling story”: Denny Moore, “Sunshine Spread Between States,” Presbyterian Advance, September 15, 1932.

  “bright and full of curiosity”: CityWealth, p. 128.

  CHAPTER 4: THE GREAT BEWILDERING WORLD

  “came to seek my fortune”: D&L, dedication.

  Pennsylvania Museum and School: See the school’s Circular of the Art Department, beginning in 1931–32, for curricula and some of Betty’s awards; interviews and correspondence with Betty’s daughter, Carol Bier.

  cheap rooming house: Kunstler, I, p. 3.

  Orange Street: JJ to Myrna Katz Frommer and Harvey Frommer, June 26, 2000, Burns. The building itself is gone but maps at the Brooklyn Historical Society give some sense of the street.

  Brooklyn Heights: Whyte, The WPA Guide, pp. 441–47.

  bounced between jobs: See JJ’s federal employment records, StL; interview, Jim Jacobs.

  Robert H. Hemphill: StL, Application for Federal Appointment, September 8, 1949, Attachment F; Hemphill obituary, New York Times, April 24, 1941. Later in the 1930s, Hemphill wrote for Social Justice, Father Coughlin’s extreme right-wing publication. The Dwight B. Waldo Library at Western Michigan University has a small cache of Hemphill materials, including a “pencil sketch done by a neighbor on yellow copy paper at 55 Morton St., New York City, NY, about 1937�
�38”; Betty seems a better guess for the artist than Jane.

  helped a broker: Request for Investigation Data, April 10, 1948, StL.

  sought work at the Markle Foundation: Florence E. Quick to Martha Robison, April 1, 1935, Markle Papers, RG 3, Series 5, Box 4, Folders 28 and 29, Rockefeller: “I am sorry I was not able to be of any assistance to your niece and hope she was successful in locating a position here in New York.” In her reply (Martha E. Robison to Florence E. Quick, April 12, 1935), Martha expresses uncertainty as to whether it was Jane or Betty who approached Markle. But Betty already had the job at A&S—and kept it (correspondence with Carol Bier) for a couple of years. This, and Jane’s early employment history generally, argue persuasively for Jane.

  “all the exotic places”: Noah Richler, “Wealth in Diversity,” Weekend Books, March 18, 2000.

  turned to gambling: JJ, “Futility vs. Taking Chances,” lecture manuscript, no date, no place, Burns, 13.

  apartment cleaned: Interview, Burgin Jacobs.

  Pablum: Kunstler, I, 4. Jane adds, “I don’t want to give you the impression that we lived for long periods like this. Maybe toward the end of the week.”

  “catchabeano”: See video, Think Again: Jane Jacobs on Urban Living, TVO, Ontario Public Television, 1997.

  “taught you how to read”: Interview, Jim Jacobs.

  “rejections and frugalities”: Dark, p. 53.

  110 words per minute: Application for Federal Employment, November 27, 1943, item 42, StL.

  “didn’t know where I was”: Alexander and Weadick.

  a man stepped from: Amateau, “Jane Jacobs, Urban Legend, Returns Downtown.” For fur district, see also The WPA Guide, p. 163.

  “know everyone else”: Jane Butzner, “Where the Fur Flies,” p. 103.

  “damp, sweet perfume”: Matter, p. 35. See also Alexander and Weadick.