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Catherine Street, west side, south from the Bowery, 1931. P.L. Sperr via NYPL. The NYPL notes say that the one story building was the site of one of the early "watchhouses" erected near the turn of the 18th century, before the establishment of a police department as we now know it. These houses were used by watchmen to look out for wrongdoing. According to "In the Watches of the Night: Life in the Nocturnal City, 1820-1930), being a watchman was poorly paid work that attracted mostly people with day jobs or few other employment options, such as old men. "Sleepy watchmen liked to spend most of their time in the comfort of the small sheds called watch houses, particularly in bad weather."

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