Birthplace of the Teddy Bear

The red bricks at 404 Tompkins Avenue once served as the facade of a ground-floor commercial space operated by Morris and Rose Mitchom, Russian-Jewish immigrants who designed a stuffed toy bear in 1902 after President Theodore Roosevelt spared the life of a bear cub while hunting. The couple got permission from Roosevelt to call their toy a "teddy bear" and founded the Ideal Novelty and Toy Company in 1907. The couple lived in one of the apartments above the store. One of their early teddy bears is on display at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. The commercial space now contains Byas & Leon, a vintage and consignment shop, and the upper floors are still apartments.

A political cartoon in 1902 started it all. President Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt, an avid hunter, was on a hunting trip in Mississippi with reporters in 1902 when he failed to kill any prey. When a young bear was captured and brought to the hunting camp, Roosevelt refused to kill the cub. Clifford K. Berryman captured the scene in cartoons published in the Washington Post newspaper. Morris Mitchtom saw the political cartoons and Rose created a stuffed toy bear in velvet with button eyes; he displayed it in the window of his Tompkins St. candy and toy shop with a sign reading "Teddy's bear" and they sold as fast as Rose could sew them. Michtom sent one of the bears to President Roosevelt and asked permission to call them teddy bears. The President wrote back and said fine, but he doubted his name would be worth much in the toy bear business. Roosevelt met cartoonist Berryman in 1903 at a reception and introduced him to Mrs. Roosevelt as "the bear man." The President reportedly confessed that he felt pity after getting a laugh out of the cartoons and doubted that he could find it in his heart ever to kill another bear. Roosevelt used the Michtom's bear as a symbol in his 1904 election campaign. A few years later, Roosevelt told Berryman that that little bear of his had put the doll industry out of business. The toy bear proved to be so popular that Mitchtom opened a second facility in Brooklyn to create the teddies.

In 1907, the Michtoms created the Ideal Novelty & Toy Company with the Butler Brothers as the wholesale distributors of the bears created from the Michtoms' patterns. This was the first teddy bear manufacturer in the U.S.; stuffed plush bears also were created independently and sold by the Stieff company in Germany, who began producing them around the same time as the Michtoms. The early Ideal teddy bears tended to have ears far apart, a triangular face with a wide forehead, and plush mohair coats. Some thought that the teddy bear craze was just a fad that would disappear when Roosevelt's time in office ended, but this proved untrue. A rival stuffed toy, the "Billy Possum," was introduced in 1909 but failed to catch on.

Morris Mitchtom died in 1938, fifteen years after his son, Benjamin joined the family business. Benjamin changed the company name to Ideal Toy Company. The 50th anniversary of the teddy bear was marked in 1952 by the creation of a special edition teddy bear with a plastic face. The Ideal Toy Corporation joined the New York Stock exchange in 1968 as one of the top three toy companies in the U.S. In 1982, Morris's grandson, mark, sold the company; it later became part of Mattel but stopped making teddy bears around 1982.

J.C. Burne was the architect of the building at 404 Tompkins Avenue, built in 1887. The ground floor storefront was modernized years ago. Rental apartments are still on the upper floors of the building, with a thrift store in the former Michtom's store space.

Anonymous. "President and Cartoonist." Paducah Sun (Paducah) February 10th 1903. 3-3.

Anonymous. "Berryman, Bear Man: Popular Cartoonist to Join Staff of Evening Star." Washington Herald (Washington) January 24th 1907. 2-2.

Anonymous. "The Cuddly Teddy Bear is Fifty Years Old Today." Brooklyn Daily Eagle (Brooklyn) November 16th 1952. , 9-9.

Casa de Bear, Alice ---. Ideal: Teddy's Bears, Let's Talk Teddy Bears. January 1st 2022. Accessed January 26th 2022. https://letstalkteddybears.com/manufacturers/ideal-teddys-bears/.

Library of Congress. Teddy Bears, America's Story from America's Library. Accessed January 26th 2022. https://www.americaslibrary.gov/aa/roosevelt/aa_roosevelt_bears_2.html.

Library of Congress. Teddy Bears, Topics in Chronicling America. Accessed January 26th 2022. https://guides.loc.gov/chronicling-america-teddy-bear.

Spellen, Suzanne. Building of the Day: 404 Tompkins Avenue, Brownstoner. July 30th 2012. Accessed January 26th 2022. https://www.brownstoner.com/brooklyn-life/building-of-the-day-404-tompkins-avenue/.