453 6th Ave
Queer Places:
453 6th Ave, New York, NY 10011, Stati Uniti
Mount Olivet Cemetery, 6540 Grand Ave, Flushing, NY 11378, Stati Uniti
Murray Hall (1841 - January 16, 1901) was a New York City bail bondsman and Tammany Hall politician made famous upon his death in 1901, when it was revealed that he was assigned female at birth.[1]
Murray Hall was born as Mary Anderson in Govan, Scotland around 1840 and immigrated to the United States as a child. Very few records remain that shed light on Hall’s early years, but it is apparent that by the 1870s he was living as man in New York City. It would later be reported that he married twice, though his only recorded marriage occurred on Christmas Eve, 1872, to Celia Frances Lowe of Maine.13 Together the pair raised an adopted daughter, Minnie, until Celia’s death in 1898.14 Celia was an attractive woman, though taller than average (reportedly six feet). She and Hall must have been quite a pair, as Hall was much shorter (just under five feet). Nonetheless, they seemingly worked well together, partners in life and business. Celia ran an employment agency and Hall was a bail bondsman in addition to having an active career in politics.
453 6th Ave
His last home was an apartment in Greenwich Village, half a block north of the Jefferson Market Courthouse (now the Jefferson Market Library). [2] The apartment is still there, above a noodle shop. The building was renumbered in 1929, when Sixth Avenue (Manhattan) was extended south, and is now 453 6th Avenue; walking tours sometimes stop there and listen to his story.
Hall was active in the political arena, a long-standing member of the Iroquois Club, and on the General Committee of the famed Tammany Hall, one of the major political machines in New York City. Hall was well respected within the organization and effective at soliciting votes for his candidates and the Democratic ticket. He voted in every election and served on at least one jury—both of which would have been impossible for him to do had he been viewed as a woman. One of the great passions of Hall’s life was collecting rare books. As it turned out, Hall was suffering from breast cancer and sought to treat the disease himself instead of seeing a doctor, which would have required that he reveal his “true sex.” He succumbed to the cancer at his home on Sixth Avenue on January 16, 1901. He was taken to the coroner’s office, where his anatomy was at last revealed.
Hall was buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery.[3] The San Francisco Chronicle reported, “For thirty years she consorted with men as one of them; for thirty years she voted the Democratic ticket in this city … for the last six years she was a member of the Iroquois Club at 4 West Thirteenth Street, the leading Tammany organization of the Fifth district.
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