Cheesy Grits: Carnegie Hall, Here We Come!—Part I

I suppose I should have guessed that in following the Thorne descendants to New York City, we might eventually end up at Carnegie Hall. But I didn't, so the discovery of a cousin who almost certainly performed there was a wonderful surprise. And it came out of the blue.

The starting point was the off-hand mention by my otherwise-unidentified interlocutor "Mr. Robinson" that another of Valeria's relatives, her Aunt Hattie, had also come to Manhattan.

Hattie was the nickname for Valeria's aunt, Harriet Thorne, I hadn't followed Harriet at all, but what got me going was the hint that I should look for her in New York City in addition to her brother Weston and her sister Rebecca (Valeria's mother).

Both Rebecca and Harriet Thorne were born before the Civil War—Rebecca in 1852 and Harriet in 1854—and, so far as we know, both grew up in the Thorne homestead at 7 Henrietta Street in Charleston.

Harriet Thorne married Arthur L. Desverney in Charleston in 1881. The marriage certificate says they were married at "the old Marine Hospital" by the rector of Charleston's St. Mark's Episcopal, The Rev. Anthony Toomer Porter.

There being no 1890 federal census, we find the Desverneys next in the 1900 census—and they are no longer in Charleston at all. They are already in Manhattan, residing at 241 W. 41st Street with their daughter, Viola, and three sons: Broughum, Alphonso, and Arthur.

The 1905 New York state census locates Arthur and Hattie at 125 W. 134th St., in the heart of what was becoming the Harlem of the Harlem Renaissance. Of their children, only, the youngest, Arthur, is listed as living with them.

The 1910 federal census shows the family at 10 W. 136th St. in Harlem. Son Broughum is listed as being at home again, along with with brother Arthur. Arthur the father's occupation is listed as a laborer at the Customs House, and his son Broughum's occupation is "elevator operator" at an "office building." No sign of Viola or Alphonso. But here is where it started to get interesting: the youngest son, Arthur, is listed in the 1910 federal census as being a "musician" at a "theater."

Well now. What could that have meant in Harlem in 1910? The immediate answer was that I hadn't a clue. So I turned to my regular source of info about African-American lives in New York City during that period, the New York Age newspaper.

Originally founded in 1880 as the weekly New York Globe, it became the New York Age in 1887 and remained so into the 1960s. The Amsterdam News did not begin publication until 1909—but what is more significant for my purposes here is the fact that the online archive I have access doesn't go back beyond about 1922.

So away to the New York Age archive at fultonhistory.com I go. I plug in "Arthur Desverney" and "NY Age" and a Boolean search immediately brings me four hits. The oldest hit is dated October 27, 1910, and the headline is this:

Raise your hand if you've ever heard of the Clef Club. I hadn't either, so I obviously had a lot of learning to do. The Clef Club was formed by a group of Harlem musicians, the most notable being James Reese Europe. Born in Mobile (AL) in 1880, Europe and his family moved to Washington, DC in 1890. By 1904, he had determined he was going to make his life making music and decided that the prospects were better in Harlem than in Washington, so he moved to New York.

Europe found both work as a composer and performer in New York City, but the outlets for black musicians were limited, so Europe and some congenial souls formed the Clef Club in 1910 as a combination of union, practice group, and general fraternal organization.The Clef Club quickly became a place where Harlem's musicians could get together to share info about gigs and practice and play together. Realizing the richness of what he had, Europe formed the Clef Club Orchestra. And it was not merely a small nightclub orchestra: Europe had 100+ African-American musicians under his baton.

The first two concerts were given at the Manhattan Casino on W. 155th Street. The headline above is from the review of the second concert, which happened on October 20, 1910. The effusive review ("...the most unique musical organization of its kind....") includes a list of the works performed and the musicians who played them. And Valeria's cousin Arthur Desverney is listed among the musicians.

Of course, the Manhattan Casino is not Carnegie Hall, and I haven't mentioned David Mannes of the Mannes School of Music yet either, but this blogpost is already long enough. We'll get there in the next one.