Thanks for posting this at it triggered TONS of pleasant memories.
I was in the 1951 Navy and lived in NYC. Even back then I was into early firearms, Civil War in particular, and the next time I was on leave, decided to check out Bannermans.
As I walked in, this old wizened guy at a table looked up and said “Sailor! There’s a horse by that name running in the Third at Monmouth” and scribbled something on his notepad. The guy said his name was Butch Woerfel, had been a sparring partner with Jack Dempsey, and showed me a yellowed clipping to prove it.
There was another guy named Jimmy Hogan, who had one arm and with whom I later on did a lot of trading - I would take rusty old muskets (dime a dozen) and polish them up, then trade them in for parts, etc. Standouts were mint M1858 Enfield bayonets at $2.00 each and 1,000 round cases of smokeless 45-70 Gatling gun ammo at $50 per case (Benicia arsenal 1903). Water damaged ones were $30. They had a Gatling gun in the window for $150, with another $150 for either a carriage or naval mount. I was sorely tempted, but lived with my folks then in a small apartment, so it was a no go.
As poster norton mentioned, the smell was intoxicating - leather, oil, metal - and all of it OLD. And, the place REEKED of history. One of the Bannerman sons (brother?) was still alive then, and his office contained a desk and a sofa from the cruiser Olympia, of the SpanAm War. The second floor was off limits as it was condemned by the city. God, we all had visions of cased mint muskets hiding up there.
There was a wall of drawers labeled with all kinds of eye-watering titles, like “Colt Revolving Rifle parts”, but alas, it had more “modern” stuff - like minty 45-70 takedown tools.
In later years, a buddy of mine and his friends were invited for a tour of the castle. His report brought tears to our eyes - rooms heaped with Union uniforms that had gotten soaked from a leak in the ceiling and were just now one huge mass of rotting cloth. The caretaker said they couldn’t wander about the grounds as it was too dangerous - Bannerman had bought some SpanAm War artillery shells that had been in a train wreck - then later found out they were an experimental shell that was armed by the shock of the discharge - and the train wreck provided that shock, hence they were cheap (!!!).
The guy also said that the castle was crumbling away because of the poor concrete used, even though they used 45-70 rifle barrels as rebar. Seems the old man had bought some barrels of cement that was seized by customs. Someone was trying to smuggle arms to Nicaragua and hid them in the barrels, and used the cheapest cement he could find.
One of his better deals was the Navy auction purchase of a large tangled ball of one-inch wire that came from the wreck of the USS Maine. No one else wanted it and he got it for a song - the rest thought he was crazy. He was - like a fox.
He cut the cable into 6-inch lengths, wrapped a small band around it with an inscription, mounted it on a small slab of steel from one of the monitors, and sold them as souvenirs at $1.00 each - the inscription said “Cable from the USS Maine”. Made a bundle. I remember he had a similar slab of monitor steel with a piece of grape shot welded on it for use as a paperweight - only $3.00. Have been looking for either of those ever since.
I TOLD you it triggered TONS of memories! :-)
Just Dang!