A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 78

Author: Ross, Peter. cn
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1188

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The Packer Institute is the successor of the old Brooklyn Female Academy which was de- stroyed by fire in 1853. Mrs. William F. Packer then offered to establish with a gift of $65,000, a new school for girls, as a memor- ial to her husband, and the property of the old

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HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.

school was transferred to the corporation which established the Polytechnic. So in 1854 the building of the Packer Collegiate Institute was opened to receive pupils and quickly be- came known as the most perfect establishment for the education of young women in the coun- try. The original building has been added to and the curriculum has been changed and im- proved and strengthened to meet the needs of the time, and every change found in Mrs. Packer a liberal and zealous supporter until her deatlı in 1892. It has a corps of 53 in- structors and an average roll of 650 students. Under Dr. Truman T. Backus it has kept pace with the highest class of women's colleges and its equipment and curriculum are maintained with a zealous regard to preserve its traditions and ifs rich record of accomplishment.

The Adelphi Academy, founded in 1869, entered upon its new building in 1886 mainly through a gift of $160,000 by Charles Pratt, president of its Board of Trustees. It is a complete institution, preparatory, academic and collegiate, and takes a pupil into its kinder- garten at the earliest age and fits him for the university or for a business or technical career. Its art department is possibly the most perfect and complete in the country. In 1889 the splendid buildings it occupies were seri- ously damaged by fire but the damage was soon repaired. It has generally between 1,100 and 1,200 pupils on its rolls.

Mr. Charles Pratt, who made a yet more princely provision for Brooklyn education in the establishment which bears his name-the Pratt Institute-was one of the partners in the Standard Oil Company. The land for this in- stitution was bought in 1883 and work on the building was at once begun. It was designed by its projector to be "for the promotion of art, science, literature, industry and thrift," and he had been planning its features for twenty-five years or more, basing its curricu- lum on some of the English technical schools with the aim of so supplementing the usual educational training as to fit, by its evening

classes, young men and women to apply them- selves to the trade they had selected with the best technical and applied knowledge. Before it was fairly opened its donor passed away, May 4, 1891.

One of the early annouuncements of the institution gave an idea of the comprehensive- ness of the plan thought out by Mr. Pratt with the provisions for the day and evening classes in the following condensed "calendar :"

High School-A four-years course for both sexes, combining drawing and manual work with the usual studies of a high school or academy.

Department of Fine Arts-Classes in free- hand and architectural drawing, clay model- ing, wood-carving, design, art needle-work; regular art course ; normal course for training of teachers ; lecture course.

Department of Domestic Art-Normal do- mestic art course; courses in sewing, dress- making, millinery, physical culture, combined course in domestic art and domestic science ; lecture course.

Department of Domestic Science-Normal domestic science course, household science, hy- giene and home nursing, public hygiene, cook- ery, laundry, food economics ; lecture course.

Department of Science and Technology- Normal manual training, drawing, and ma- chine designs; algebra, geometry, physics, chemistry, electrical construction, steam and the steam engine, strength of materials, ma- chine design ; mechanical drawing ; carpentry, machine work, plumbing, house, sign and fres- co painting ; lecture course.

Department of Kindergartens-Training class for teachers, mothers' class, nurses' class, special classes ; lecture course.

Department of Libraries-Free Library, Reading and Reference Room. Classes in library training, literature and cataloguing.

Department of Museums-Collections of inorganic substances, ceramics, glass, building and decorative stones, reproductive processes, organic compounds, textile fabrics.

The Thrift-Deposit, savings, and loan branches, the privileges of which are open to the public.

The Brooklyn Eagle Almanac for 1896, after the institution had been in operation for

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"THE END OF AN AULD SANG."

several sessions, gave the following account of its work, an account evidently supplied "on authority :"

"The late Charles Pratt gave to the youth of Brooklyn an institution that. is unique among the educational establishments of the country. While there are technological schools in other cities, there are none that were found- ed by a single individual that have anything like the range and influence that is exerted by the Pratt Institute. The buildings of this school are on Ryerson street, between Wil- loughby and DeKalb avenues, extending back for a block to Grand avenue. The main struc- ture is 100 feet wide by 60 feet in depth, and six stories in height. The building devoted to science and technology behind this structure is 240 by 95 feet, while directly south of the main building is that of the High School, 50 by 80 feet, and three stories high. The latter was completed January 1, 1892. A new building has been erected on the west side of Ryerson street, that will contain the library. [This was completed and opened in May, 1896, and con- tains about 80,000 volumes and the collection is at the service of any resident of Brooklyn.]

"The object of the Institute is to promote manual and industrial education, as well as cultivation in literature, science and art ; to in- culcate habits of industry and thrift, and to foster all that makes for right living and good citizenship. Its aim is also to educate young men and women in handicrafts by which they will be made self-supporting; it encourages them, moreover, to practice those arts in a thorough and honest manner. The classes are open to everyone, but there is no room for shirkers and dawdlers. Nominal charges for tuition are made, but the Institute is in no way a inoney-making concern. The library of 52,- 000 in the new building is free to all citizens, children included. There is a reading room, with a reference department of nearly 2,000 volumes. On the second floor is an assembly hall, where lectures are given on the more gen- eral aspects of studies in the curriculum.

"The floor above is mostly devoted to do- mestic art-dressmaking, etc. ; and on the sec- ond floor is a commercial department. . The cooking schools are on the upper floor. The whole fourth floor is devoted to art-painting, drawing, designing, carving, modeling in clay -while the technical museum on the fifth floor and other parts of the main building contain

works of art in textiles, etchings, photography, ceramics and metal. There is a fine collection of minerals. The large annex contains the en- gines, anvils, shops, foundries and other branches of the Department of Science and Technology.

"The High School is the Academic Depart- ment of the Institute. Its course of study cov- ers three years and embraces manual training for both boys and girls. Pupils who have graduated successfully from a public grammar school are prepared to enter the High School, which fits its graduates for the highest scien- tific schools and colleges.

"In the basement of the main building is the library school for the training of library assistants, and the luncheon room.

The Institute is under the control of a board of trustees. The average number of students is 3,000; instructors, 120."

Since then the work of the Institute has so increased that the last returns give the number of instructors at 134. The department called The Thrift is practically a building loan bu- reau and by it thousands of working people have been enabled to own their own homes.

But useful as the Pratt Institute is, the edu- cational pride of Brooklyn is the "Institute of Arts and Sciences." It has done a great, work in the past, it is doing a great work in the present, but its future promises wonderful de- velopments. It is the outgrowth of the old Apprentices' Library of 1824. In 1843 the name was changed to the Brooklyn Institute and for many years its annual lecture course was famous in the days when the lecture plat- form was a power in the land. Its main bene- factor was Augustus Graham. He presented to its trustees the building on Washington street in which it was housed, and at his deatlı in 1851 it was found that he had bequeathed to it $27,000 as an endowment. Of this the income from $10,000 was to be spent in scien- tific lectures and the purchase of scientific ap paratus, the income from $12,000 was to pro- vide Sunday evening lectures on religious top- ics, while the interest on the remaining $5,000 was to support a school of art. But somehow the interest in the institution began to fall off,

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HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.

the building was remodeled at a cost of $30,- 000 without improving its popularity, and as this amount was met by a mortgage the inter- est on Graham's endowment had to be devoted to its payment.

In 1887 a number of public-spirited citi- zens, foreseeing the evident end of the Insti- tute, determined to revive it in accordance with modern ideas and on a scale that would be in keeping with the growth and importance of the city, with a grand museum as its central feature. A public meeting was held and much general interest was arcused and it was not long before the Institute building became a scene of daily activity. In two years the mem- bership rose from 350 to 1,200, the library was reorganized and augmented at the rate of 50,- 000 books a year, most of the scientific societies in Brooklyn joined the Institute and became departments of its work. In 1890 the building was partly destroyed by fire but the work went on, the various schools offering quarters for the use of the departments and in 1891 it had a total membership of 1,810. That year the Institute formally passed out of existence and its property was deeded to the Brooklyn Insti- tute of Arts and Sciences,-the old society under a new name and with greatly enlarged powers. In 1892 the old building was acquired for bridge purposes and demolished and the departments continued to find refuge in the various schools and institutions until the new permanent home should be ready.

That home was the museum, so long talked about and anticipated. The city of Brooklyn was authorized to erect a section of the Mu- seum building at a cost not to exceed $300,000. A tract of land facing the Eastern Parkway on the north, Washington avenue on the east, a line 100 feet south on the southern boundary of old President street on the south, and land reserved for the Prospect Hill Reservoir on the west, containing eleven and nine-tenths acres and valued at $900,000, was leased by the city of Brooklyn to the Institute for a term of one hundred years.

On this site has been erected the first sec- tion of a Museum building, in classic style, and the entire structure, when completed, will cover an area of 560 feet square, with four in- terior courts, to provide light for the central portions of the building. The plan provides for collections illustrating the general history of Art and Architecture on the first floor, rooms for the illustration of the practical Arts and Sciences on the second floor, and galleries for the illustration of the history of Painting, Engraving, Etching and Decorative Art on the third floor. The central portion of the build- ing is carried one story higher than the rest, and in this the Schools of Fine Arts and of Architecture will be located.

The first section of the building was com- pleted in January, 1897, and was furnished and ready for occupancy as a Museum in May. It was opened to the public for the first time on June 2, 1897, and has remained open daily since. A second building in Bedford Park, on Brooklyn avenue, is used as an auxiliary to the main Museum.

The Board of Estimate and Apportionment in 1899 authorized the erection of a second sec- tion of the Museum Building and an appropri- ation to meet the cost of the same of $300,000. The second section is now in process of erec- tion.

The departments now covered by the In- stitute's work include anthropology, archaeol- ogy, architecture, astronomy, botany, chemis- try, domestic science, electricity, engineering, entomology, fine arts, geography, geology, law, mathematics, microscopy, mineralogy, music, painting, pedagogy, philately, philology, phil- csophy, photography, physics, political science, psychology, sculpture and zoology. It has a membership of 6,132 and its yearly work con- sists of courses of lectures on the arts and sci- ences, monthly meetings of each of the de- partments, concerts and dramatic readings. Its collections in anthropology, archaeology, arch- itecture, chemistry, botany, entomology, eth- nology, geography, geology, microscopy, min-

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eralogy, photography and zoology, apparatus in physics, chemistry, electricity and engineer- ing, and collections of paintings, sculpture and statuary are large and varied. The officers are A. Augustus Healy, Pres. : Chas. A. Schieren and Carll H. De Silver, Vice-Prests .; George C. Brackett, Sec .; Wm. B. 'Davenport, Treas .; Associate Members : Rev. Albert J. Lyman, Pres. ; James Cruikshank, Sec .; John A. Tay- lor, Treas .; Prof. Franklin W. Hooper, Gen- eral Director of the Institute.

The early story of the drama in Brooklyn has already been told and its later history may here be rapidly sketched. The Brooklyn The- atre, destroyed by the awful calamity of De-' cember 5, 1876, was rebuilt in 1879 under a new name-Haverly's-but was not a success either financially or artistically and was torn down in 1890 to afford a site for "The Eagle" newspaper.

But somehow the drama has never acquired much of a foothold in Brooklyn and while stars and combination companies fill up a week's engagement very comfortably the taste of the people seems to run toward "variety" rather than to the "legitimate." Mr. Hamilton Ormsbee in 1898 summarized the closing days of the Brooklyn theatrical story as follows:

An attraction was Hooley's Opera House, which occupied the upper floor of a building at Court and Remsen streets, where the Dime Savings Bank now stands, from 1862 to 1883. It was called an opera house, but was a place for minstrel show and is chiefly notable for the appearance of popular black-face performers and for the fact that that brilliant comedian, Nat C. Goodwin, used to do the imitations of eminent actors, for which he was once noted upon its stage at a very early time in his career. Another disused theatre is the Lee Avenue Academy in the Eastern District, which for many years after it was opened, in 1872, occu- pied the same position in the eastern end of the city as the Park did in the western. There was also once a theatre where is now Lieb- mann's Arcade, on Fulton street. R. M. Hco-

ley and Thomas Donnelly opened it in 1869 as the Olympic. Hyde & Behman and John W. Holmes afterward conducted it and it disap- peared about 1890. Music Hall, at the junc- tion of Fulton street and Flatbush avenue, was used for a time about 1872 for negro minstrel exhibitions. The oldest theatre in the Eastern District is the American, on Driggs avenue, which was built as the Odeon in 1852, used in 1868 by R. M. Hooley as a variety house and has been both a variety theatre and a skating rink.

The conversion of an unused market on Adams street, near Myrtle avenue, into a va- riety theater in 1877 is notable, because it was the introduction to Brooklyn of the firm of Hyde & Behman, among the most extensive and prosperous managers in the theatrical business. Their Adams street house is one of the leading variety houses in the country, and they are the owners of six other theaters in Brooklyn, besides one in Newark. Their Brooklyn houses are the Grand Opera House, Amphion, Park and Gayety, used for drama, and Hyde & Behman's, the Star and Empire, for variety and burlesque. The Grand Opera House, in Elm Place, was built on the site of a church, and opened to the public in 1881. It was long managed by Knowles & Morris. The Amphion, on Bedford avenue, was built by the Amphion Musical Society, with the idea that it would occupy the same position in the Eastern District that the Academy of Music did in the Western. It was opened as a first-class theater, with C. M. Wiske as manager. This venture was unprofitable, and in January, 1888, Knowles & Morris took possession, conducting the house as a combi- nation theatre. The control of Manager Ed- win Knowles over this house lasted until the end of last season, and in that time he pre- sented at that theatre the chief American and foreign actors of the day, with the exception of Henry Irving. Mr. Knowles was also the first manager of the Columbia, built for him, Daniel Frohman and Al Hayman, and opened

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HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.

March 7, 1892, with "Alabama." The Bijou Theatre was opened November 13, 1893, by H. C. Kennedy & Co., with Mr. Ken- nedy as the resident manager. The play was "Adonis," with Henry E. Dixey. In 1895 Colonel William E. Sinn, who had leased the Park Theatre since 1875, opened the Mon- tauk Theatre, which was regarded as the most perfectly adapted house of its kind when com- pleted. The Star Theatre was built about the time the Brooklyn Theatre was torn down, was used for a time as a combination house, and has since been occupied for variety and burlesque.

The leading event in the history of the Brooklyn little theatrical world in the closing days, however, was not its transformations or changes of management, but the final appear- ance of a world-renowned actor, who had, it would seem, lingered on the stage too long. This was Edwin Booth, possibly the greatest tragedian America has produced, who on April 4, 1891, made his last public effort on any stage at the Academy of Music. The play selected was "Hamlet," and as the Prince Booth had in the years of his prime won his highest meed of praise. But his performance that night, as indeed on every night of his engagement, was a shock to all his admirers. It was mercilessly condemned by the news- paper critics, who did not see that the per- formance itself was a tragedy,-the ending in gloom of a career that had done more than aught else to lift the American stage above the level of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and "The Dumb Man of Manchester." But it was the old story summarized in Johnson's famous line,

"Superfluous lags the veteran on the stage." .

The National Guard after the war became a well-disciplined force. The Brooklyn con- tingent formed the second of the four brig- ades into which the State military forces were divided and was under the command of Briga- dier-General James McLeer, one of the vet-

erans of the Civil War and who for eight years had held the office of Postmaster of Brooklyn. The strength of the commands under him in 1897 was as follows :

Organization. No. of Members.

Brigade Headquarters. II

Thirteenth Regiment. 635

Fourteenth Regiment. 616

Twenty-third Regiment

759

Forty-seventh Regiment. 593

Seventeenth Separate Company 94

Third Battery. 81

Second Signal Company . 48

Troop C.

100

Total

.2,937

From the time of the close of hostilities between the States the Guard had been mainly engaged in holiday making, varied by shoot- ing excursions to Creedmoor, but even amid the holiday making discipline and tactics were strenuously maintained, so that one of the offi- cers used to remark that the Brooklyn National Guard was ready at any moment to go on any military duty. But the time came when the valute of the militia was to be again tested. On January 14, 1895, 5,500 employes of the trolley companies went on strike. The merits of the dispute have no interest for us here and need not be discussed. Almost the entire system of street-car travel was brought to a standstill, and the apparent perfection of the strikers' plans seemed to give promise of a speedy termination of the trouble. But the employers were obstinate, and on the follow- ing day the strikers commenced to get ugly: Slowly the cars "began again to move," as new hands flocked in from all parts of the coun- try, and on the 16th and 17th the police was able to handle whatever disturbances arose. On the 18th, however, the trouble got beyond their capability, a car was fired upon, a riot of considerable proportions raged for a time on Fifth avenue, and "fresh" conductors and motormen as well as passengers suffered, and on the following day the entire militia force, under General McLeer, was ordered out.

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"THE END OF AN AULD SANG."

The military remained in possession of the streets until February Ist, when the struggle was given up by the strikers. During these eventful days the troops had hard work. Sev- eral of the rioters were shot, and it is hard to say how many were hurt in the daily charges of the cavalry. The streets were constantly patrolled by armed men, and here and there loaded cannons were placed on open streets ready to sweep an entire thoroughfare if necessary. Brooklyn breathed freely when it was all over and mourned the loss involved in human life as well as in money; but it was felt that the National Guard had saved the city from an era of mob violence and riot which would have brought about scenes at the very thought of which the boldest could not help shuddering.

In 1896 the Navy Yard was adorned with a rather ornate new main entrance at Sands and Navy streets, and its entire 1121/2 acres were by that time fully enclosed on the land side. The following description of the yard in 1897 is from "The Eagle:" "The Lyceum is a three-story structure. On the ground floor are the offices of the captain of the yard, and on the second floor offices of the commandant and his aides, and on the third floor the quar- ters of his clerks. Here the records are pre- served, including such as pertain to ships, lists of officers and rosters of all clerks and the em- ployes. In Trophy Park, a triangular green adjoining the Lyceum-not in the Museum- is a marble column, commemorating twelve American seamen who fell at the capture of the Barrier forts, on Canton River, China, in 1856. It was erected by their shipmates on the "San Jacinto," "Portsmouth" and "Le- vant." About the monument are guns cap- tured from the British frigate "Macedonian," and the iron prow of the Confederate ram "Mississippi." In 1890 the Naval Museum, containing priceless relics and trophies, was sent to the Naval Academy at Annapolis. A small octagonal building west of Trophy Park is the office of the naval surgeon, and beyond

that there is a building for provisions and clothing. Here is cut out by machinery all the clothing used in the Navy, except that worn by officers, though the garments are sent away to be finished. Here, also, all the coffee used in the Navy is roasted, ground, put up. in tins, and all canned goods, hard tack and condensed food for the' Navy are stored.

"On the other side of Main street the cruiser "Cincinnati" was built.

"The workshops, machine shops and foun- dries are on Chauncey, Warrington and Mor- ris avenues. On Chauncey avenue, which ex- tends from Main street to Flushing avenue, are the cooper shop, mold shop, ordnance building, tank shed, now used for sand, coal and lumber ; a building for anchor chains and rigging loft, coppersmith's, plumbing shop and boiler shops. Building No. 7, on War- rington avenue, contains various departments, the court-martial room, civil engineer's room and flag loft, where all flags and bunting used by our Navy as well as flags of other nations are made by women. Other buildings on this avenue are the blacksmith's shop, paint shop, yard and docks, construction de- partment and steam engineering department. The avenue ends in a park. On Morris avenue are a joiner's shop, offices, boat house and iron plating shops. Most of the senior officers are pleasantly quartered on Flushing avenue, while some of them live in private houses in the city. The spacious marine barracks and drill yard are entered from the gate on Flushing avenue, and the only department out- side the enclosure is the Naval Hospital on Flushing avenue, separated from the yard by Wallabout market. In the hospital enclosure is the naval cemetery. The water front of the yard extends for 6,600 feet from Little street on the west to Division avenue on the east, and opposite the center is the Cob dock. This is an island nineteen acres in extent, and to resist the action of the tide a concrete and granite wall is built around it. It has a water front of 5,000 feet. Whitney Basin

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HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.

in this island has a frontage of 3,300 feet. The ordnance dock is also here. Communi- cation is had by means of a steam rope ferry, and a causeway across Wallabout Channel, connecting the Cob dock with the main shore at the northeast boundary line, is now prac- tically completed. This causeway is to be 522 feet long, with an extreme width of forty-one feet. Two forty-ton cranes, traveling on an eighteen-foot railway around the dry docks, are designed for lifting armor plates weigh- ing from twenty to forty tons; stepping steel masts, hoisting machinery and boilers and low- ering them into place."

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A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 78

Author: Ross, Peter. cn Publication date: 1902 Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 1188

Author: Ross, Peter. cn
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1188