From The Villager, 3/1/12
By Eric Ferrara
In February of 1891, a 35-year old German man named Christian C.W. Grassman arrived in New York City and quickly established himself in the real estate field.
By the turn of the century he had co-founded the Grassman and Hirtz real estate company, located on the first floor of 94 St. Mark’s Place. The eccentric immigrant became a regular fixture in the neighborhood, especially popular among local children who thought of the rotund, white-haired German as a “Summer Santa Claus.”
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