Canada and the World
Current Events with a Canadian Perspective
Last update
16 May 2011
Collyer Brothers:
New York City Hoarders
Two eccentric New Yorkers from an established and respected family withdrew into their home and began collecting what many regard as garbage
Homer and Langley Collyer were an extraordinary pair of brothers. They were born into one of New York City’s oldest families (Homer in 1881 and Langley in 1885) and lived in a mansion on Fifth Avenue near 128th Street, at a time when the Harlem address was fashionable.
Langley Brothers were well Educated
The children of gynecologist Herman L. Collyer and Susie Gage Frost Collyer, both young men graduated from Columbia University.
Homer got a degree in engineering though never practiced his profession preferring to devote himself to music; he was a very accomplished pianist. Langley got a law degree and worked in the field of admiralty law.
Their father left the family in 1909 and died in 1923; Susie Collyer died in 1929. The brothers inherited everything – the house, medical equipment, furniture, and books.
Increasing Crime Turned Brothers into Recluses
The Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the beginning of the Depression saw crime increasing
in Harlem and elsewhere. There was an attempted break-
Psychologist World describes their actions: “They boarded up the windows to their house and set up booby traps. Their gas and water was turned off because they refused to pay and they used only a small heater.” The front entrance was blocked by boxes stuffed with junk.
Langley Collyer Collected Garbage
The younger brother roamed the streets late at night and dragged home whatever he found that he took a fancy to. In 1933, Homer went blind so Langley hoarded newspapers in case his brother regained his eyesight and wanted to catch up on the news.
By now, the brothers were the subject of local gossip and newspapers started sending out reporters to track down a good story.
One of these was Helen Worden who wrote an article (August 11, 1938) about the Collyers
for the now-
Ms. Worden reported every local rumour about the house being stuffed with valuable antiques, rugs, books, and a huge stash of money that Langley would not put in a bank. None of this was true.
Deaths of the Collyer Brothers
On the morning of March 21, 1947 police received an anonymous tip that a dead body was in the house in which the Collyers lived.
When the police arrived they could not, at first, get into the property. The doors were blocked by boxes; they tried the basement but the stairs were jammed with packing cases and debris.
Eventually, they forced open a first-
After two hours of clambering over the mess, police found Homer’s body, but there was no sign of Langley.
Carting away a Lifetime of Saved Junk
Authorities began the mammoth task of cleaning up the house. In all workmen carted
away 136 tonnes of the brothers’ collection that included a 2,500-
In an article written for New York Press (October 5, 1999) William Bryk lists some
of the material taken away: “…telephone directories, three revolvers, two rifles,
a shotgun, ammunition, a bayonet and a sabre, a half-
There was even a dismantled Model T Ford in the building.
Two weeks into the clean up a workman uncovered Langley’s body. It seems he had unwittingly triggered one of own booby traps and had been crushed under some enormous bundles of newspapers.
Hoarding is a Serious Mental Disorder
Writing for the October 2004 issue of Discover Mary Duenwold reports, the hoarding “compulsion,…scientists now theorize, is a natural and adaptive instinct gone amok. Elsewhere in the animal kingdom, the instinct to hoard offers clear evolutionary advantages.”
Storing food for the winter is a good example of how this works.
Duenwold quotes Tom Waite, a biologist at Ohio State University in Columbus, as saying
hoarding may also be part of a mating strategy: “It’s called resource-
The Collyer brothers, however, did not procreate nor did they have enough food. Homer was emaciated when he was discovered and the autopsy found that starvation contributed to his death.
Sources
“The Psychology of…Hoarding.” Mary Duenwald, Discover, October 2004.
“Extreme Phobias: The Collyer Brothers.” Psychologist World.
“The Collyer Brothers.” William Bryk, New York Sun, April 13, 2005.
“A Cognitive-
© Canada and the World, May 2011
All rights reserved
Hoarders collect and keep everything whether useful or not and whether they use it or not.
It is different collecting something such as stamps, comic books, or Cds.
In the journal of Behaviour and Research Therapy (April 1996) Randy O. Frost and colleagues describe three characteristics of compulsive hoarders:
- The acquisition of and failure to discard a large number of possessions that appear to be useless or have limited value;
- Living spaces so cluttered with bric-
a- brac that they cannot be used for their designed purpose; - Distress or impairment of functioning brought on by the hoarding; and,
- Hanging on to borrowed items and even stealing.
In his 2003 book Ghosty Men, Franz Lidz writes that Langley Collyer scavenged for scraps of food at night, even though the brothers had a fortune of more than $100,000.
E. L. Doctorow has written a very engaging novel built around the lives of the Collyer brothers, entitled Homer and Langley (Random House, 2009).