Athens’ Wall Street is easy to miss if you’re not on the lookout for it, but it remains one of the oldest and most storied streets in town. Tucked between East Clayton and East Broad streets, this narrow street—today flanked by Mellow Mushroom and DePalma’s—looks more like an alley than a thoroughfare. But from the 1840s through the 1870s, you might hear the strange cry of a Frenchman named Joseph Zebenne, whose daily routine transformed the street into a spectacle.
Zebenne was a butcher by trade and a local character known by many. A French immigrant, he also served as a lamplighter, night watchman, and even operated a hotel bathhouse. In his role as butcher, he had an agreement with local merchants to feed the cats that kept their stores free of rats and mice. Each morning, Zebenne would stride down Wall Street with his meat scraps, yelling in a thick accent that echoed off the buildings. In response, hundreds of cats would pour in from storerooms and corners in a frenzied rush to Wall Street, which locals dubbed “Cat Alley.”
But cats weren’t the only creatures fighting in the alley. Cat Alley gained a reputation for brawls between men, too. One could grab a drink at Von Ecklen’s saloon, clash with a rival in the alley, and find themselves promptly escorted to the nearby “calaboose” jail—all within a single block. How convenient!
After Zebenne’s death in the early 1870s, Cat Alley lived on only in newspaper column reminiscences, memoirs and nostalgic recollections. But, purrhaps (I had to), the next time you pass by Wall Street, you, too, will allow its memory to live on by imagining the French butcher Zebenne surrounded by a drove of feasting felines.
Like what you just read? Support Flagpole by making a donation today. Every dollar you give helps fund our ongoing mission to provide Athens with quality, independent journalism.
