Category: Architecture

Two Odd Fellows
The other day, I casually mentioned that the Odd Fellows Hall was still standing, and I got a weird look. I revisited the Two Well-Known Gentlemen exhibit at the New Orleans Storyville Museum, and I started doubting if I was right. Why is there an uproar over the unused Odd Fellows and Masonic Hall/Eagle Saloon if they tore it down in 1914? Probably because there have been several Odd Fellows halls in our history. I tried to sort through the records.

What are Odd Fellows?

The Independent Order of the Odd Fellows are men (fellows) who have different jobs (odd jobs) than the traditional trade-based secret benevolent/mutual aid societies. It began in England in the 18th century and spread to the United States in 1819. The first mention I found in New Orleans was in 1837, which is also the year that The Picayune was established¹. The mention makes it pretty clear that the Odd Fellows were established in New Orleans before this point. In the Find A Grave entry for Henry Bier, I learned that the I. O. O. F. came to New Orleans in 1831².

They market themselves as primarily charitable, and they still exist in New Orleans. One of their purposes is to bury the dead. Odd Fellows Rest Cemetery was opened in 1849, one of the oldest in New Orleans³.

Old Odd Fellows Hall

(1831—1837) — The earliest home I could find for the Odd Fellows in New Orleans was at No. 50 Canal Street where they had a Lodge Room, mentioned in that first reference I found. No. 50 Canal Street was a boarding house called the Canal Streethouse with a barroom on the first floor, according to a 1844 ad for its sale by J. F. Barnes⁴.

(1837-1846) — A few months later, in August, an ad appears announcing the new lodge home of the Odd Fellows in New Orleans at the corner of Camp and Natchez⁵.

(1846-1851) — Between 1846 and 1851, the Odd Fellows occupied the upper story of a building at No. 13 Camp Street, which was between Common and Canal on the 1886 Sanborn insurance maps⁶.

The Daily Delta Tue, Apr 30, 1850, Page 1

(1852-1866) — In 1850, the Odd Fellows started a company to raise money to build their own building. The cornerstone was laid in 1850 at Lafayette and Camp streets⁷. It was dedicated in 1852⁸.

This hall was damaged during the aftermath of the Civil War in 1865 and then completely burned in 1866.⁹

Jewell, Edwin L., Ed. Jewell’s Crescent city, illustrated. New Orleans, 1873, page 86. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, http://www.loc.gov/item/01010867

(1867-1914) — On Camp between Lafayette and Poydras, 522 Camp Street sometimes 530 Camp Street¹⁰

The Odd Fellows initially wanted to rebuild in the same spot, but that spot became the Court House¹¹. The 1886 Sanborn map lists this space as the Criminal District Court. The building that is there now, the John Minor Wisdom U. S. Court of Appeals, was built between 1908-1915.

Eventually, they decided to build in a nearby building that was occupied by the Quartermaster’s Department after the Civil War. It was, at one point, the private residence of Benjamin Story. There were two Benjamins — Sidney’s uncle and Sidney’s brother. I think this must have been the brother’s home based on timing¹².

The Odd Fellows demolished their hall in 1914 because the cost for rat-proofing would exceed the cost of demolishing it.¹³ Several cases of the plague originated from the Odd Fellows Hall.¹⁴ The city had provided notices all across the city that rat-proofing was necessary to combat the rat plague. They were so serious that they got doctors involved. This is also, believe it or not, when we start getting municipal garbage pickup in New Orleans, but it wasn’t fully in effect until about 1920.

So that’s the Odd Fellows Hall where the Two Well-Known Gentlemen had their infamous balls. What about the one that is still standing?

Odd Fellows and Masonic Hall/Eagle Saloon (1850)

Eagle Saloon in 2025, photo by the author

At 401 S. Rampart Street sits an 1850 building once known as the Odd Fellows and Masonic Hall and also the Eagle Saloon. It is currently owned by the New Orleans Music Hall of Fame, but it’s sat empty for some time¹⁵. There is no more important building standing for the history of Jazz in the United States, according to Offbeat Magazine¹⁶.

The third floor of this building served as the home of the Black Odd Fellows and Masonic society, which formed when two groups merged, in New Orleans¹⁷.

The Times-Picayune, Wed, Nov 01, 1876, Page 6

According to most sources, 401 S. Rampart (old address 122 S. Rampart) was built in 1850¹⁸. Joseph B. Hubbard, owner of Hubbard’s Furniture Palace, occupied the space until 1897¹⁹. Hubbard advertised that he was the oldest furniture store in New Orleans, since 1840. The oldest ad I found for Hubbard was 1876. In the 1871 New Orleans City Directory, which is the earliest I find a listing, Hubbard’s Furniture is at 401 S. Rampart. His residence is listed as Cincinnati, Ohio.

Hubbard sold the building in 1897, and he died in Cincinnati in 1899²⁰. The Masonic and Odd Fellows Hall Association leased the third floor and Jake Itzkovich had a loan/pawn shop on the first floor. Jake moved in 1907 and the first floor became the Eagle Saloon in 1908. Hubbard’s ads referred to a Sign of the Golden Eage. Itzkovich called his place the Eagle Loan Office, and the Saloon carried on the Eagle name.

Commercial Bulletin, Price-Current and Shipping List, Wed, Oct 20, 1880, Page 5

In 1919, Maison Blanche leased the upper floors as warehouses. By 1920, Itzkovich and his loan store are back in the space. In 1925, the building underwent renovations into the look it still has²¹. In 1938, it’s the Dixie Beer Parlor²². In 1945, the Segrettos, Grace and Joseph, also listed 401 S. Rampart as their address. Grace ran the beer parlor and Joseph was a criminal sheriff deputy. In 1947, it was the Main Liquor Store. The New Orleans Music Hall of Fame purchased the property in 2002²³.

So What?

Somehow, without anyone really paying attention to it, this building has survived for at least 175 years. During that time, it served as a hub of history. Some of the most significant events in music history happened on the corner of S. Rampart and Perdido. For instance, on this corner, Louis Armstrong fired the gun on New Years’ Eve, the incident that sent him to the Colored Waif’s Home where he learned to play music, seemingly changing music history with that event.

But we can’t count on the luck that’s led the cement of this building to hold. Hurricane Ida knocked down the Karnofsky Tailor Shop, a few doors down from the Eagle Saloon, just a few years ago. The Karnofskys were among those who encouraged a young Louis. In the stories that he told later in life about delivering coal in Storyville as a child, he was accompanying Morris Karnofsky on that mission. I hope we’ve learned our lesson before the Eagle Saloon is gone too.

Demolished instead of Rat-Proofed

The New Orleans Item on September 11, 1915, page 1, details the rat-proofing efforts. They demolished many buildings in the crusade against the plague, 7,068 total including 1,477 dwellings or main buildings. They also installed 53,000 garbage cans in the campaign. They spent about $500,000 by June 30, 1915, which is more than $16,000,000 in 2025.

In addition to Odd Fellows Hall, they also demolished the St. Louis Hotel during the rat-proofing campaign.

Some New Orleanians Listed as Odd Fellows Publicly

G. W. Cable, President, 1843 (presumably the father of the famous author)
Sidney Story, Director, 1849 (uncle of the famous founder of Storyville)
Thomas F. Bragg, Grand Master 1860
Henry Bier, RWD Grand Master, 1850

Sources

“Odd Fellows Attention,” The Picayune, June 15, 1837, page 3. ↩︎
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/243732664/henry-bier ↩︎
Napoleon, Chelsey Richard. “Archives Month – Cemetery District/Canal Street Cemeteries Part 2,” October 29, 2021. https://clerkofcivildistrictcourtnotarialarchives.wordpress.com/2021/10/29/archives-month-cemetery-district-canal-street-cemeteries-part-2/ ↩︎
“For Sale,” The Daily Picayune, December 10, 1844, page 2. ↩︎
“Odd Fellows, Attention!” The Picayune, August 13, 1837, page 2. ↩︎
“Dedication of the Odd Fellows Hall,” The Picayune, January 29, 1846, page 2. ↩︎
“Odd Fellows’ Procession,” The Daily Picayune, April 30, 1850, page 2. ↩︎
“Buildings Erected,” The Daily Picayune, February 1, 1852, page 3. ↩︎
“Disastrous Fire: Odd Fellows Hall Destroyed — Loss $225,000-Insurance $95,000,” The Daily Picayune, July 6, 1866, page 2. ↩︎
Masonic and Odd Fellows Buildings in New Orleans, First Draft blog from the Historic New Orleans Collection, December 8, 2023. https://hnoc.org/publishing/first-draft/feeling-fraternal-freemason-and-odd-fellows-buildings-new-orleans ↩︎
The Times Picayune, December 10, 1867, page 1. ↩︎
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/40584863/benjamin_saxon-story ↩︎
“Odd Fellows get $1250 for Hall,” The New Orleans Item, September 6, 1914, page 56. ↩︎
“Another Victim of Plague Reported: Keeper of Odd Fellows’ Hall Stricken While at His Home — Tenth Infected Rat is Caught,” The New Orleans Item, July 26, 1914, page 60. ↩︎
McCusker, John. “Save the Eagle Saloon (From Whom?)” The Lens, May 21, 2016. https://thelensnola.org/2016/05/21/save-the-eagle-saloon-from-whom/ ↩︎
Ramsey, Jan. “Music in New Orleans is a lot More than Entertainment,” Offbeat Magazine, July 31, 2019. https://www.offbeat.com/music-in-new-orleans-is-a-lot-more-than-entertainment/ ↩︎
Fertel, Randy. “Eagle Saloon / Odd Fellows and Masonic Hall,” A Closer Walk by WWOZ, https://acloserwalknola.com/places/eagle-saloon ↩︎
Odd Fellows and Masonic Dance Hall and Eagle Saloon https://www.nps.gov/places/odd-fellows-and-masonic-dance-hall-eagle-saloon.htm ↩︎
Napoleon, Chelsey Richard. “Historic and Popular Jazz Locations,” June 13, 2022. https://clerkofcivildistrictcourtnotarialarchives.wordpress.com/2022/06/13/historic-and-popular-jazz-locations/\”>https://clerkofcivildistrictcourtnotarialarchives.wordpress.com/2022/06/13/historic-and-popular-jazz-locations/ ↩︎
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/211428926/joseph-b.-hubbar ↩︎
National Register of Historic Places nomination, 2002. https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/eac34ff8-3446-4e7f-bb11-7189481254af ↩︎
Landmark Designation Report, December 5, 2008. https://nola.gov/nola/media/HDLC/Designation%20Reports/401-3srampart-report_001.pdf ↩︎
Russell, Gordon. “Little Gem Saloon sold in heart of CBD; most of landmark New Orleans jazz block under single owner,”https://www.nola.com/entertainment_life/ian_mcnulty/little-gem-saloon-sold-in-heart-of-cbd-most-of-landmark-new-orleans-jazz-block/article_d9dd9048-ae0d-11e9-867c-6b11139d171c.html ↩︎
Lea Pearl
The Cornstalk Fences
I’m taking a little break from procrastinating on my Irish New Orleans series to document an adventure in tour guiding cooperation. Recently, a few other guides helped me crowd source an elusive list, the cornstalk fences of New Orleans, and I want to share it with you.

The First Legend I was Told

The Cornstalk Fence in New Orleans is a subject of fascination by many. I recently posted a video about the fence and its origin. Tour guides have created winding histories of the fence and pegged it as unique. I received such a tale on a Garden District Food Tour for my first wedding anniversary. We had gone on a food tour in Miami on the way home from climbing Machu Picchu for our honeymoon, and the experience was incredible. We couldn’t stop raving about the bites we tasted, the stories we learned, and how much we enjoyed the tour guide, who was phenomenal at her job.

Because of this experience, we searched for a food tour in New Orleans. This was 2013. We struggled to find even one then believe it or not. Eventually, we booked a Garden District food tour for a weekend near our anniversary. We were excited because we knew that a food tour in New Orleans would be worlds better than the amazing tour we had in Miami.

On the day of our tour, the guide called to confirm that we still wanted to do it even though no one else had signed up…yes, a private tour is a feature not a bug. As a tour guide, this still seems like a weird question to me. We did a mini tour of homes in the Garden District and ate food at some places along the way. One of the homes featured was Col. Short’s Villa on Fourth Street where the guide told us The Legend of the Cornstalk Fence.

In short, the legend claims that the wife who lived in the home was from Iowa and was homesick. Her husband had a custom fence built so that she could see her familiar rows of Iowa corn at home in New Orleans. The legend can’t be true for many reasons, explored in thoughtful articles before my research began.

Other Legends of the Cornstalk Fence

The legend is probably repeated most often in the French Quarter though, where there is another prominent iron fence with a cornstalk pattern. The double cornstalk fences provide a bit of a problem for the tour guide legends that claim it was a one-of-a-kind masterpiece…The 1938 New Orleans City Guide doesn’t include the legend and does point out the two cornstalk fences and their “similar” designs, claiming these are the only two in New Orleans. Perhaps they were at the time.

During my tour guiding class, our Garden District tour also included the cornstalk fence legend. It was presented as a legend and Frank, our teacher and guide, ended his spiel by saying it was probably from a catalog from Pennsylvania…

The Elusive Eleven Fences

The main article I found exploring the legend was from Strange True Tours written in 2020 by Historian Jane. The article is no longer available, but it is captured on the Wayback Machine. In the article, she mentions that there are 11 cornstalk fences in New Orleans. ELEVEN!? There were four that were fairly well known. The French Quarter and Garden District and then one in the Marigny and one in Bayou St. John. Where are the other seven cornstalk fences???

I knew that I wouldn’t be able to search the city to find them, but I collected references I found along the way. For instance, once someone posted in a comment that they knew of one at 3434 Canal Street.

I commented on Reddit recently about the cornstalk fences, and someone revealed the one at 1540 Erato Street. I posted a photo of that one on Facebook, and a tour guide friend revealed the one on Willow Street. After that, another tour guide friend posted one he had found in 2021 on Marias Street. Then, other tour guides chimed in with the ones they had found on missions to find them all, including the husband of Historian Jane.

In total, our cooperation revealed 13 current fences around the city and one former fence. All of them are mapped below, so you can build your own deep tour of the city and probably see neighborhoods you’ve missed. I’ve also included fences that are outside of New Orleans.

Tour guides have a tendency to be extremely competitive. This is an example of wonderful cooperation for our collective knowledge, and I couldn’t be happier to be a part of it. Maybe together we are just as influential as the tour guide who made up the legend.

But what about that catalog…?

The Cornstalk Catalog

The Metal Museum says that the original fence was the 915 Royal Street fence and it was installed in 1856. But I haven’t found any primary documentation for that yet. The Metal Museum also includes the Iowa story as if it’s true…The fence was added to the Wood & Perot foundry catalog in 1858, and there are only three remaining complete fences, per the Metal Museum — the one in the French Quarter, the one in the Garden District, and one in California that was moved from a property at Julia and St. Charles. The Metal Museum also explains that the Fourth Street example is from the Wood and Miltenberger foundry in New Orleans. Although, the plaque on the fence says it’s from Philadelphia.

One late night, I was trying to find any semblance of Romeo Spikes in an archived ironworks catalog for the Robert Wood foundry in Philadelphia from the 1860s. My bleary eyes focused on a cornstalk in one of the fence designs. I still haven’t found any Romeo Spikes but I found…the catalog with the cornstalk fence???

Yes, there are the pumpkins (my favorite part), and the morning glory vines, and the cornucopias, and the butterflies! This is clearly the cornstalk fence design. Is the 915 emblazoned on the plate like the supposed original on Royal Street? No, of course not. [To be fair, the address in 1856 for this lot was 217 Royal Street. It was changed to 915 when the numbers were standardized around 1895.]

Design 511. Robert Wood & Co.’s “Portfolio of Original Designs of Ornamental Ironwork of Every Description” from 1860s, p. 131.

G. W. Mordecai 1860

The fence plate reads “G.W. Mordecai 1860”. There were two G.W. Mordecais who could have this fence built in 1860. George Washington Mordecai (1801-1871) and George Washington Mordecai II (1844-1920).

Based on brief research and some clues (like GW2 would be only 16 in 1860), my instincts tell me the first G. W. had this fence made and that he initially used it in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he is also buried.

Is the fence bearing the G.W. Mordecai label the actual original fence…? According to the Society of Architectural Historians, the original fence was from 1850, so maybe not. The design was also part of an earlier catalog than I’m referencing, according to the Metal Museum, so, again, probably not the original depicted in this catalog.

When did 915 get the Fence?

The earliest photo I have found of the building is from 1899, and the fence is clearly visible. This image accompanies a 1939 article that briefly explains the provenance of the fence as they understood it then. “In its earliest days, the house didn’t have its odd fence. In the late 1850s, according to available evidence, the daughter of Dr. Biamanti inherited it, and had the fence cast.” Dr. Biamanti had two daughters, Maria and Aimee. The daughters inherited the property in 1858 and partitioned it in 1859. If it was a daughter who had the fence cast, it wasn’t in the 1850s.

The only property description I found that seems to include the fence is very vague. It’s from an ad for the home’s sale in 1900, and just says “under a massive iron inclosure” as a feature. I think the most information available is from the Sanborn Insurance Maps. I highlighted 217 on the 1876 map below to show where this property is. Based on the key, there is a firewall six inches above the roof. There are four windows on one side and two on the other. The home and back building have three stories each. The roof is composite. While the buildings next door have iron and wooden cornices, none are listed in front of 217. I don’t see anything about iron fence or gating on the key, so I don’t think this map holds the information we need to know if the cornstalk fence was added already in 1876. Please let me know if you can help me learn more!

Sanborn’s Insurance Maps, April 1876, Negative Detail Number: N-1281D57
Courtesy of: Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries via the Historic New Orleans Collection
Provenance: Howard-Tilton Library (Tulane University)

By searching for images of the very famous building next door, formerly known as the Old Spanish Courthouse and currently known as the Andrew Jackson Hotel, I was able to find etchings as far back as 1871 showing the fence. After seeing a reference on the Historic New Orleans Collection’s Vieux Carre Digital Survey, I discovered that the University of Michigan has digitized Appleton’s Journal: A Magazine of General Literature. You can find the etching of the Old Spanish Courthouse with a cornstalk fence neighbor along with many other etchings of the city in the article “New Orleans: The Crescent City” from the October 26, 1872 issue.

So the fence was there by 1871. That means it was a Biamanti daughter, probably Maria, or Marie Antoinette Biamonti Ogden, who installed the fence. Right? She is listed at the address many times in the paper, including for her funeral.

But…ornamental iron production ceased during the Civil War in New Orleans. A massive iron fence like this wouldn’t be installed in the city after about 1860 (when the Fourth Street iteration dates from) and definitely not after 1862. So the fence probably was installed in the late 1850s, which means it was Dr. Biamanti who possibly had it cast. If the original dates to 1850, then it’s doubtful that this is the original cast. The iron trend in New Orleans didn’t really start until 1850 or 1851. Wouldn’t it be interesting to find a receipt and learn how much the fence cost originally and who it was for?

A Clue in the Maker’s Mark

I’ve been searching for a maker’s mark on the cornstalk fences. I’ve definitely been the weirdo looking at the bottom of the posts to try to see words through many layers of paint. I hadn’t found any success until the twelfth and thirteenth fences revealed their makers clearly — Wood, Miltenberger, & Co. New Orleans, LA. The most run down of the fences has the most clear mark. I did find a mark on the fence on Fourth Street and remnants of one on the Royal Street fence. So far, all of the fences with visible marks are Wood & Miltenberger, indicating they were made in New Orleans.

Let me know if you’ve found any more cornstalk fences in New Orleans or beyond. Besides California and Memphis, there is a piece at a Native American memorial in Tulsa, Oklahoma. If you have more information about the original cast iron cornstalk fence, I would love to update this information!

Sources

“Inside the Collection: Cornstalk Fence Section,” The Metal Museum, https://www.metalmuseum.org/post/2018/06/01/inside-the-collection-cornstalk-fence-section

Historian Jane, “Cornstalk Fence Blog,” Strange True Tours, 2020, archived.

Design No. 511. Robert Wood & Co.’s Portfolio of Original Designs of Ornamental Ironwork of Every Description. Philadelphia. © 1860s p. 131. https://archive.org/details/portfoliooforigi00robe/page/131/mode/1up

“George Washington Mordecai,” https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/32402890/george_washington-mordecai

“George Washington Mordecai,” https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/67809727/george-washington-mordecai

Kingsley, Karen and Lake Douglas. “Miltenberger Houses,” https://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/LA-02-OR22

“New Orleans: The Crescent City,” Appletons’ journal: a magazine of general literature. / Volume 8, Issue 187, p. 449-454. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/moajrnl/acw8433.1-08.187/455:1?rgn=full+text&view=image

“Marie Antoinette Ogden,” https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/11894714/marie_antoinette-ogden

915 Royal
915 Royal
915 Royal
1448 Fourth
1448 Fourth
1448 Fourth
1448 Fourth
1205 N. White
1205 N. White
1205 N. White
1205 N. White
1205 N. White
The Times-Democrat Sun, Apr 08, 1900 ·Page 23
The Times-Picayune Wed, Nov 15, 1876 ·Page 4
The Sunday Item-Tribune, March 19, 1939, p 50
4316 Willow
Appleton Journal etching from 1872
3434 Canal Street
Robert Wood & Co. Portfolio
New Orleans Republican Sun, Apr 10, 1870 ·Page 3
The New Orleans Crescent Mon, Jun 14, 1858 ·Page 5
1448 Fourth
1538 Fourth
1408 Esplanade
1801 General Pershing- view of back

Postscript

As if this wasn’t long enough, right as I was preparing to publish, I found an odd connection between the French Quarter fence and the Garden District fence that still needs solving. Robert Short bought the property on Fourth and Prytania from Edward Ogden in 1858, according to the newspaper article from 1870 describing the seizure of the property from Short. Maria Biamanti married Robert W. Ogden in 1847 and lived with him in the property on Royal Street, presumably from 1859 when she inherited it completely for the duration of their marriage. Who is Edward Ogden?
Lea Pearl
Cast Iron Victorian Hinges
When you’re seeking your next deep New Orleans experience, look for the cast iron Victorian hinges. You can still find them on shutters on every block of the French Quarter and in many neighborhoods beyond.¹ I learned about these special historic details at the New Canal Museum tour in the Lighthouse.

Note: This is part of my series on atypical things to do in New Orleans, the deep experiences. Click the button to see the rest!

Deep New Orleans Experiences

The design allows one to open or close the shutters and lock them in place without tools. You lift the shutter up and then replace it to change its position. These cast iron hinges are so functional in their purpose that there are images of the Lighthouse blown completely over from Hurricane Katrina, but the shutters remain locked in place.

New Canal Lighthouse following 2005 hurricanes via https://www.historic-structures.com/la/new_orleans/new-canal-lighthouse/

Listings for the hinges often include a history explaining that Harvey Lull invented them in 1854. They are referred to as the Lull and Porter Hinges sometimes and commonly the Acme Lull and Porter, or ALP, hinges today.

But the image on the patent for these hinges is similar but clearly not the same. Indeed, a repeated complaint about the 1854 design was that they did not stay closed in wind.

Many designs for hinges appear in the patent records as improvements on the Lull and Porter hinge design. The design that seems most similar to the hinges you can still find in New Orleans to my inexperienced eyes is the 1867 design by Pascal Child.

Lull filed and received extensions for his patent in 1867 and 1876. He claimed poverty. By 1874, he earned only $14,500 — about $427,768.97 in 2024 money or $21,388.40 for each of the 20 years of his patent. Others agreed that his invention should have been worth a lot more, as it was now in common use.

“No opposition to the extension has appeared, but, on the other hand, some eighty prominent hardware dealers and manufacturers (not interested in the patent) residing in the cities of New York, Hoboken, Philadelphia, Reading, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Baltimore, Washington, &c, have petitioned Congress for its extension, on the grounds that the invention is of great value to the public; that the said Lull has not received adequate compensation; that the public will be better protected by the extension, in having good and substantial castings made; and that the cost to the public will not be increased,” William Windom wrote in a report submitted to the 44th Congress on March 20, 1876.²

This wasn’t exactly true. Two years before, in 1874, the report issued by the Committee on Patents did not recommend extending the patent. Henry B. Sayler outlines how much Lull has made from his invention and ends with, “It is but reasonable to conclude that this sum would have been substantially increased had it not been for certain sales of interests in said inventions which were unfortunate in failing to bring to the applicant any returns whatever. No considerable time or money by the applicant in perfecting his invention is shown. Your committee are of the opinion that the equities in this case are not of such a character as to entitle the applicant the relief asked for, and would therefore report adversely thereto.”³

Nevertheless, Congress granted his extension in 1876 for seven additional years.

Patent Case

In 1882, the year before his second extension ended, Harvey Lull sued Charles Clark and several others for patent infringement.⁴⁵ His claim was that the other hinges were not substantially different than his original invention, which was the mechanism by which the shutters closed and locked and not the specific pieces constructed. The invention was the mechanism, and the court agreed. “Where the mechanism used by defendant’s shutter hinge is a mere formal variation from that of plaintiffs’ invention, having the same mode of operation, it is an infringement of the patent,” the Federal Reporter concluded in 1882.

However, Clark appealed to the Northern District of New York in 1884. The decision resulted in a precedential ruling.⁶ The defendants objected to the initial ruling because the court found that none of the similar hinges except the Clark hinge were similar enough to infringe on Lull’s patent. They argued that this was an uneven application done without any authority of the court. In other words, the judge couldn’t have been expert in hinges enough to know that the only similar one was the Clark hinge. The court said that it was done to the best of his ability and without substantial confusion or delays. “It would create intolerable delays and confusion, besides putting an unnecessary burden upon the court to hold, that each time the master makes a ruling, the aggrieved party may, by special motion, have it reviewed,” J. Coxe wrote in his decision to deny the motion.

I found at least one case that cites Lull v. Clark (1884). In Pathe Laboratories, Inc. v. Du Pont Film Mfg. Corporation, 3 F.R.D. 11 (S.D.N.Y. 1943), the “motion to quash subpoena duces tecum issued under Rule 45 to produce records before a hearing master authorized to determine the issue of plaintiff’s damages” was denied, and the Lull decision of maintaining the authority of the court to determine what was relevant evidence was cited as a precedent.⁷

Lull v. Clark is also cited in Modern Pleading and Practice in Equity in the Federal and State Courts of the United States, with Particular Reference to the Federal Practice, including Numerous Forms and Precedents Volume II by Charles Fisk Beach, Jr. from 1900.⁸

Conclusion

In 1874, Harvey Lull had spent $1,500 on litigation, or about $40,000 in 2024. However, he hadn’t made any substantial improvements on his invention, either via time or money. He invented another totally different hinge in 1874 for blinds.⁹ He also had patents in 1837 (Improvement in machines for breaking and dressing hemp and flax), 1856 (Improvement in feathering paddle wheels), 1871 (Improvement in auxiliary springs for treadles), 1871 (Improvement in shade racks), and 1873 (Improvement in curtain cord fasteners). I didn’t find any indications that he sued anyone over those inventions.

Perhaps he was right to fight so hard to protect his intellectual property at the time. We are still using a variety of it today, 170 years later. I found a comment on an article explaining that the Acme version of the hinges was patented in 1906. I have struggled to find this patent. Please let me know if you know where to find it!

Timeline

1854: H. Lull Shutter Hinge
1867: Improvement in Hinges for Window Shutters
1867: Lull filed first patent extension
1874: Lock Hinges
1874: Design for Blind Hinges
1874: Patent No. 156,277 to Charles B. Clark October 27, 1874
1874: Lull filed second patent extension
1882: Lull v. Clark and others
1906: ACME Lull and Porter hinge patented

Sources

House of Antique Hardware “Acme” Cast Iron Mortise Shutter Hinges – 3 3/4” x 2 1/2” https://www.houseofantiquehardware.com/shutter-hardware-3-3-4-inch-acme-mortise-hinges ↩︎
Windom, William. Report No. 160 to Senate, 44th Congress, 1st Session, March 20, 1876. ↩︎
Sayler, Henry B. (Committee on Patents), Report No. 601 to the House of Representatives, 43rd Congress, 1st Session, May 22, 1874. ↩︎
Lull v. Clark patent and case info, https://oldhouseguy.com/images/shutters/HingePatentInfo.pdf ↩︎
“Lull v. Clark and others,” Circuit Court, N. D. New York 1882, Federal Reporter, p. 456. https://law.resource.org/pub/us/case/reporter/F/0013/0013.f1.0456.pdf ↩︎
Lull v. Clark, Court Listener, 20 F. 454, 22 Blatchf. 207, 1884 U.S. App. LEXIS 2233, https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/8162499/lull-v-clark/ ↩︎
PATHE LABORATORIES, Inc., v. DU PONT FILM MFG. CORPORATION, Case Text, Pathe Laboratories, Inc. v. Du Pont Film Mfg. Corporation, 3 F.R.D. 11 (S.D.N.Y. 1943), https://casetext.com/case/pathe-laboratories-inc-v-du-pont-film-mfg-corporation ↩︎
Beach, Jr. Charles Fisk. Modern Pleading and Practice in Equity in the Federal and State Courts of the United States, with Particular Reference to the Federal Practice, including Numerous Forms and Precedents Volume II, W. H. Anderson and Co., Cincinnati, OH. © 1900, p. 681. ↩︎
H. Lull Patent for Lock-Hinges for Blinds No. 148,315, March 10, 1874, https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/1b/39/c0/982aa30904e5da/US148315.pdf ↩︎
Lea Pearl