Stubborn Neighbors

On our tour today, we'll meet one subject known for what he built, and another known for what he accomplished—and both of them deliver a curious journey.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
is an open book, all of these amazing tales are
right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Oftentimes a vast amount

(00:29):
of wealth can draw a lot of attention. Money and
fame go together like peanut butter and jelly, or Little
Blue Boxes and Tiffany's. But some people are content to
just make the money. They don't want the notoriety that
comes with having more than everyone else. Unfortunately, and maybe ironically,
even the rich don't always get what they want. Joseph

(00:51):
Richardson was one of the richest men in New York
City in the late eighteen hundreds. He was born in England,
but came to the United States to establish himself as
a car attractor. Over the span of his career, he
was responsible for the Bridgeport Waterworks and large sections of
railroads like the Union Pacific, Missouri Pacific, and Iron Mountain.

(01:11):
He loved land, and he snatched up as much of
it as he could, accumulating a net worth of twenty
million dollars before he died. And yet, despite his vast
holdings within New York City. He hated it, not the money,
but the city itself. It was loud and ostentatious and
disruptive to his quiet nature. Joseph lived far outside of

(01:33):
New York with his wife, Emma, also a landowner, and
together they were quite the power couple of their time,
though they did their best to stay out of the limelight.
Joseph was known to have said that he'd rather throw
away ten thousand dollars than see his name in the newspapers,
if only he'd spent the money to prevent what eventually
happened next In two rival developers Patrick McQuaid and Himan

(01:56):
Sarner had plans for an apartment building on the Upper
east Side at Lexington Avenue and eight two Street. The
area was booming, with new apartments and shops going up
all the time. McQuaid and Sarner had already snatched up
all the nearby land they needed for their building, all
except one and its owner, Emma Richardson, Joseph's wife. The

(02:18):
developers thought it was an easy get, considering they had
already bought all the other plots around it. Joseph, however,
saw that he and his wife were in the enviable
position of having something the two men wanted no needed
to complete their plans, but Joseph was a reasonable man
and he was more than willing to let it go
for a price. McQuaid and Sarner offered him a thousand

(02:40):
dollars for it. Joseph, thinking the price was too low,
countered with a slightly higher offer of five thousand dollars.
The men laughed at the absurd number and refused, but
they continued with their plans to build the apartment building,
albeit a slightly smaller lot than they hoped for, and Joseph,
irritated by their refusal to take him up on his offer,

(03:01):
decided that he was going to have the last laugh.
He'd put up a building of his own, one so
tall it would block the light to the rival apartments
next door. Not only that, but the reclusive developer was
so determined to make it work that he planned to
live in one of the rooms, right in the middle
of that noisy city he hated so much. Joseph broke

(03:21):
ground shortly thereafter, and his apartment was finished months before
his rivals. But there was just one problem. It was
hard to live in the plot that the two other
developers had wanted to buy from him, was only one
and two ft long by five ft wide. It was
a strip of land so small that it was thought
to be unusable, but Joseph Richardson wouldn't let that stop him.

(03:44):
The newspapers called it the spite House, and spiteful it was,
although one might have thought it was meant to punish
the tenants living inside rather than the developers of the
other building. The narrow front doors led to an interior
hallway measuring just over eight feet long by ten ft deep.
Each floor housed only one room, accessible by a hallway

(04:04):
fourteen feet long and almost four ft wide. The rooms
weren't much better either, coming in at eighteen feet long
by almost ten feet wide. However, despite the building's narrow construction,
Joseph managed to fit a lot inside it. The dining
room on the first floor boasted a table and a
sofa with a sideboard and a mantle as well. He
moved his family in and they lived happily there for

(04:27):
many years. His wife was quoted in the paper as
calling her new home as comfortable as any she had
ever lived in. Upon Joseph's death fifteen years later, the
house passed through various owners until the new Lexington Avenue
subway line began construction around nineteen eleven. By then, the
house was more a curiosity than a viable home. The

(04:49):
money it would have taken to reinforce it to withstand
the underground work being done wasn't worth spending, so in
nineteen fifteen, a real estate developer bought the spite house,
only to tear a down. A more modern apartment building
now stands in its place, built the year Joseph Richardson's
pet project was demolished, and the man who did everything

(05:10):
he could to keep his name out of the press
isn't known for his business acumen or his work developing
the country's railroad system. The only thing he's remembered for
now is that skinny house and his stubborn will. Most

(05:36):
people don't usually set out to be a hero. They
tend to be pushed into a situation where their will
and determination are put to the test. Prove yourself during
a time of war, and medals and ticker tape parades
aren't far behind. That's just the way things often work. Simon, however,
didn't choose to go to war. He was drafted, but
his reluctance didn't stop him from helping his fellow troops,

(05:59):
and his word following World War Two cemented him as
a hero of the British military for years to come.
Several years after the war had ended, the British Navy
got word of a communist uprising happening in China. They
sent the HMS Amethyst, an armed frigate, to keep an
eye on things in case they got ugly. The ship
docked at a port in Hong Kong where one of

(06:20):
the younger men, a boy really seventeen year old George Hickenbottom,
stumbled upon someone fending for himself. His name was Simon,
and he was sick and hungry and in need of
medical attention. George snuck him on board the ship and
then helped him get back on his feet. As Simon recovered,
he started getting to know the crew. When he was
well enough to stand, they allowed him to remain on

(06:42):
the ship and even gave him a job. He was
put in charge of pest control, a task that he
handled with gusto. After all, the alternative was ending up
back on the Hong Kong streets alone and hungry. Captain
Ian Griffiths took quite a liking to Simon, as had
the rest of the crew, and he became their moral
support when times got tough. They shared their food with

(07:03):
him and allowed him to sleep where he liked. Later,
when Griffiths was promoted and replaced Folks on board the ship,
worried that Simon might have to go, but the new
commander was just as friendly toward him. Soon after, the
crew was given new orders to travel to Nanjing and
replace the ship that had been on duty there. But
during their journey, the Amethyst was attacked. A field gun

(07:25):
battery operated by the People's Liberation Army had opened fire
on the ship. The new commander took one of the
first hits while he was in his cabin and died
shortly after. Simon happened to be with him at the time.
He'd been badly burned and had sustained shrapnel injuries as well,
but he somehow managed to crawl across the deck while

(07:47):
the shelling continued, escaping to the medical bay with a
small group of other crew members, where they waited out
the sounds of explosions outside. Death was almost a certainty,
but the crew took care of Simon's wounds as best
they could for ten days the ship took fire. While
the crew struggled to stay alive and afloat, they packed

(08:07):
the holes below the water line with hammocks and betting. Meanwhile,
Simon fought to recover. He distracted himself and the other
crew by doing what he did best, catching rats. After
the Amethyst was able to get away, over a week
after the shelling had begun, news of Simon's efforts made
its way to England. The public was enamored with this

(08:28):
unexpected hero, one who had never asked to be part
of something so dangerous. But he handled it all with grace,
not once succumbing to fear or panic. People sent him
letters from all over, so many, in fact, that the
Navy had to hire someone just to answer his mail
for him. He even received awards for his bravery, including
the Dicken Metal. For those who don't know, the Dicken

(08:50):
Medal is the highest award given to animals in the
British military. You see, Simon, who had hunted rats and
kept up the morale aboard the HMS Amethyst, wasn't a man.
No man would have been able to nap inside the
captain's hat or go wherever he pleased on board a
military ship. That's because Simon was a cat. I hope

(09:16):
you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about
the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show
was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how
Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore,
which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and

(09:39):
you can learn all about it over at the World
of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.