USA > New York > Kings County > Brooklyn > A history of the city of Brooklyn and Kings county, Volume II > Part 12
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School, Bryant & Stratton's Business College, Miss Rounds's School for Girls, Kissick's Busi- ness College, and Browne's Business College.
In special education the Long Island Col- lege Hospital and the Brooklyn College of Pharmacy occupy an important place. The Long Island College Hospital and Training School for Nurses was chartered in 1858. Its history as a hospital and as a college has been notable. The graduates in 1893 numbered 60, bringing the total list of graduates nearly to 1500.
It frequently has been lamented that Brook- lyn has no great free library, and the deficiency is one for which the city deserves a mark of discredit. But it is due to Brooklyn to ob- serve that she is by no means without excel- lent opportunities for those who wish to read.
The Brooklyn Library, which succeeded the old Mercantile Library, is not free to the public, but the subscription rate is so low in comparison with the privileges that the insti- tution is in many respects to be regarded as a great public library. The building on Monta- gue Street was finished in 1868 at a cost of $227,000, and its beautiful Gothic front forms one of the genuine ornaments of the city.
The library contains nearly 200,000 volumes,
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admirably selected. The catalogue compiled by Stephen B. Noyes was of a character to bring honor alike to library and librarian. Upon the death of Mr. Noyes the management of the library came into the competent hands of W. A. Bardwell, who became librarian in 1888. The reading-rooms are furnished with 300 periodicals and newspapers. In the refer- ence departments there were 75,000 readers in 1893, and in the reading-rooms 100,000 readers. The Brooklyn Library has, indeed, performed an immensely important service in the development of the city.
The Brooklyn Institute Free Library, for- merly in the old Institute Building on Wash- ington Street, and now at 502 Fulton Street, contains 16,000 well-selected volumes, and is efficiently managed. Pratt Institute Free Library is a notable instance of a great public service through a private agency. The library of 42,000 volumes includes 2000 German and 2000 French books. There are an Astral Branch at Franklin Avenue and Java Street, and delivery stations at Froebel Academy and 754 Driggs Avenue. Reading-room and library are free to the use of all residents of Brooklyn. The Long Island Free Library, at 571 Atlantic Avenue, is the result of a well-directed move-
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ment. There are but 15,000 volumes, but method of selection and distribution have as- sured the usefulness of the work. To this must be added the free public school libraries, and the substantial free library of the Union for Christian Work on Schermerhorn Street.
The free library of the Long Island Histori- cal Society naturally occupies an important place. The reference department of 48,000 volumes includes the noteworthy publications of the society itself. The Law Library in the Court House contains 15,000 volumes, and there are 7000 volumes in the library of the Kings County Medical Society.
In addition to the libraries of the Young Men's and the Young Women's Christian associations,1 there are over twenty-five special free reading-rooms throughout the city, most of them connected with churches.
1 The present building of the Young Men's Christian Asso- ciation, at Fulton and Bond streets, has been occupied since 1885. It has a circulating library of over 13,000 volumes, a finely equipped gymnasium, running-track, bowling-alleys, and swimming-tank, two large lecture-halls, and evening classes registering 700 men. The fine building of the Young Wo- men's Christian Association, at the junction of Schermerhorn Street and Flatbush Avenue, has been occupied since 1888. It has eighteen class-rooms for educational work, a library with about 6000 volumes, a lecture-hall seating 650, assembly- rooms seating 400, an excellent gymnasium and running-track, and medical department.
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The large number of churches, and the emphasis laid upon church interests, once gave to Brooklyn the title of the City of Churches. The proportion between the num- ber of churches and the population no longer is so exceptional as to justify such a title, but church life in Brooklyn is, in many respects, of unique prominence. The greatest preacher the United States has produced, Henry Ward Beecher,1 occupied the pulpit of Plymouth Church during a great formative period in the city's history. The Rev. Richard S. Storrs, D. D., pastor of the Congregational Church of the Pilgrims since 1846, the descendant of a distinguished family of preachers and orators, who has been called the "Chrysostom of Brooklyn," occupies a place among the most
scholarly of American orators. The popu- larity of the Rev. T. De Witt Talmage, pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle since 1869, has been unexampled in the church history of the country. The thirty years' pastorate of the Rev. Theodore L. Cuyler, at the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church, constituted a notable force in the advancement of the com- munity. The enlightened leadership of the Catholic Church by the Right Reverend John
1 See p. 165 of this volume.
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Loughlin, first bishop of Brooklyn, who was succeeded in 1892 by the Right Reverend Charles E. McDonnell, has been a matter for congratulation in the Catholic Church; and the Episcopal Church has been under no less obligation to the first bishop of the Protest- ant Episcopal Diocese of Long Island, the Right Reverend A. N. Littlejohn, D. D. When Dr. Littlejohn was elected bishop in 1869, he was succeeded as rector of Holy Trinity Church by the Rev. Charles Henry Hall, D. D., who has been one of Brooklyn's strongest preachers.
St. James' Church, at Jay and Chapel streets, has been the cathedral church of the Catholic diocese for nearly half a century. The corner- stone of a great cathedral, to occupy the block bounded by Lafayette, Clermont, Greene, and Vanderbilt avenues, was laid in 1868, but only a part of the structure has been completed.
In 1893 the following were the numbers of · churches of different denominations in Brook- lyn : Baptist, 40; Congregational, 26; Ger- man Evangelical Association, 5; Jewish, 10; Lutheran, 27; Methodist Episcopal, 53; Primitive Methodist, 4; Methodist Free, 1 ; Methodist Protestant, 1; Presbyterian, 33; Roman Catholic, 63; Reformed Presbyterian,
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I; United Presbyterian, 3; Protestant Epis- copal, 45; Reformed Episcopal, 2; Dutch Reformed, 19; Unitarian, 4; Universalist, 5; miscellaneous, 23.
In the county towns the churches are num- bered as follows: Baptist, 1; Hebrew, I ; Lu- theran, 5; Methodist Episcopal, 9; Protestant Episcopal, 8; Methodist Protestant, 1 ; Re- formed, 8; Roman Catholic, 12. In 1893 there were ten so-called Chinese Sunday-schools in Brooklyn, most of them connected with Protest- ant churches, and said to enroll 200 members.1
Religious societies in Brooklyn include a large list of prosperous and efficient bodies. Among these may be mentioned the Catholic Historical Society, the Union Missionary Training Institute, the Baptist Church Exten- sion Society, Baptist Social Union, City Bible Society, Church Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, City Mission and Tract Society, Brooklyn Sunday School Union, Eastern District Sabbath School Association, Brooklyn Theosophical Society, Brotherhood of Christian Unity, Church Charity Founda-
1 The practice of establishing classes for Chinamen in con- nection with Sunday-schools has occasioned many and pro- longed discussions in Brooklyn, and has been strongly assailed, particularly in those instances where the teaching of mature Chinamen was intrusted to young unmarried women.
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tion, Congregational Church Extension So- ciety, Congregational Club, Foreign Sunday School Association, German Young Men's Christian Association, Greenpoint Sunday School Association, Greenpoint Young Men's Christian Association, Kings County Sunday School Association, Long Island Baptist Association, Order of Deaconesses of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Women's Aux- iliary, Unitarian Club, Universalist Club, and the Young People's Baptist Union.
Brooklyn's churches occupy a particularly intimate relation with the intellectual and social life of the city. The circumstances under which the Rev. John W. Chadwick, D. D., became a leader in that highly signifi- cant intellectual movement, the Brooklyn Ethical Association, which has held meetings during a number of seasons at the Second Unitarian Church, and under which the Rev. John Coleman Adams, D. D., instituted the free historical lectures to public school chil- dren at All Souls Universalist Church, have been typical of a wholesome and progressive tendency in the community.
The work of the churches is supplemented by many and admirable organizations devoted to the relief of the weak, destitute, and incom-
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petent. An important position is occupied by the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor. The Brooklyn Bureau of Chari- ties, with central offices on Schermerhorn Street, has " the general purpose of promot- ing the welfare of the poor, the suffering, and the friendless in the city of Brooklyn. The specific objects and methods include : The pro- motion of cordial cooperation between benevo- lent societies, churches, and individuals; the maintenance of a body of friendly visitors to the poor; the encouragement of thrift, self-de- pendence, and industry; the provision of tem- porary employment and industrial instruction."
The Society of St. Vincent de Paul under- takes the general relief of the poor, without regard to color or creed, the work being done by a conference in each church (Catholic). The society is governed by a council com- posed of the president and vice-president of each conference.
A number of industrial agencies have been devised for the purpose of supplying temporary work for men and women. A bureau of relief for needy veterans of the Rebellion was estab- lished in Grand Army quarters at the City Hall. In recent years the number of free dis- pensaries throughout the city has greatly in- creased.
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The Brooklyn Hospital, incorporated in 1845, received valuable aid from Augustus Graham, the founder of the Brooklyn Insti- tute. The present hospital at Raymond Street and De Kalb Avenue has been in operation since 1852. St. Catherine's Hos- pital was established in 1869. The Memorial Hospital for women and children was founded in 1881; the Methodist Episcopal Hospital in the same year; St. Mary's Hospital in 1878; St. John's Hospital in 1871; the German Hospital in 1889; the Lutheran Hospital in 1881; the Brooklyn Hospital for Contagious Diseases in 1891 ; St. Peter's Hospital in 1864 ; the Brooklyn Home for Consumptives in 1864; the Eastern District Dispensary and Hospital in 1851 ; the Long Island Throat and Lung Hospital in 1889 ; the Brooklyn Throat Hos- pital in 1889; the Brooklyn Homeopathic Hospital in 1852 ; the Brooklyn Eye and Ear Hospital in 1868; the Kings County Hospital (a county institution) in 1837; the Brooklyn Maternity in 1870; the Faith Home for In- curables in 1878; the Inebriates' Home for Kings County in 1867.
For the protection and relief of children, the city has the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, the Children's Aid So-
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ciety, the Industrial School Association, with six branches, the Nursery and Infants' Hos- pital, the Howard Colored Orphan Asylum, the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, the Orphan Asylum Society, the Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum Society, with three branches; the Eastern District Industrial School, the Shel- tering Arms Nursery, St. Giles's Home, St. Vincent's Home for Boys, St. Christopher's Day Nursery, and St. Malachi's Home.
Brooklyn's right to the title of the City of Homes, rather than to that of the City of Churches, is excellently supported by a study of its social life; and in no phase is this pe- culiarity more apparent than in the club life of the city, which is distinctly in harmony with the general social life of the city. Several of the city clubs have " ladies' nights," or special receptions to which ladies are invited, and to some of the clubs ladies are admitted at cer- tain hours of the day. " The Union League, with its Romanesque front of cinnamon brick and brownstone on a semi-square, is near the south end of Bedford Avenue. Its location is fine, and during the political campaigns it is an important centre. Medallions of Grant and Lincoln adorn the front, an eagle with out- stretched wings holds up a 'bay,' and a carved
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bear stands on the roof, a symbol of the 'grip' that clubdom has on the modern man. The great hall in this house is one of the finest in the country. Across the city, a square below the Park plaza, stands the Montauk, a fine structure, ornate, in light tones of brick, and with a Greek frieze above the third story, which is unique in architectural decoration and is a replica of old bas-reliefs. Near by is the mammoth building of the Riding and Driving Club, the largest and best arranged structure of the kind in this country. The Hamilton, one of the older clubs, has a tall building on the corner of Clinton and Remsen streets, showing an expanse of red brick and brownstone. It has no distinctive architec- tural style. Architecturally, a most elaborate club-house is the Germania on Schermerhorn Street. Its style is a rich but modified Floren- tine. The material is pale brown brick. A feature of it is the great arched doorway. The Bushwick Democratic club - house on Bush- wick Avenue is, architecturally, on the same lines, a reduced version in stone and terra cotta. The club has but recently taken pos- session of this new house. Out in Flatbush, on the avenue, is the Midwood, an old colonial manse, unaltered, with wide-spreading grounds,
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its façade marked by great white columns, such as are almost unknown elsewhere in the county of Kings to-day. The Hanover, on Bedford Avenue, is a fine modern double house, with extensions and remodelings. The Brooklyn and the Oxford clubs have recently enlarged their rather unpretentious build- ings without special reference to architectural beauty. The Excelsior is a plain city house. The Lincoln has the appearance of several buildings joined together, but is ornate and striking. Out of town the Crescent and the Field and Marine clubs have charming country homes, turreted and porticoed, and surrounded with trees and lawns." 1
In literary, artistic, musical, dramatic, and social clubs, the city has become populous. The Academy of Music had its origin in the success of the Brooklyn Philharmonic Society, the leading organization for the patronage of music, which was incorporated in 1857. It had been remarked that the audiences which patronized the concerts of the New York Phil- harmonic Society were, in a great part, made up of Brooklyn people. In 1856 or 1857 it occurred to the heads of several families, who were the best and most appreciative patrons 1 Eagle Almanac, 1894.
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of the New York society, that Brooklyn might and ought to have a Philharmonic Society of its own. The project was inaugurated, and was attended with success. The subscription list doubled the second season. There were, the second year, over seven hundred sub- scribers, and numerous patrons besides. The Athenæum was entirely inadequate for the purposes of the society. In 1858, the leading members of the Philharmonic Society, by cir- culars, called the attention of several leading citizens to the relative change that was going on between the two cities, and pointed to the success of their society as the best evidence that the time had come when a large lyric hall was demanded by the necessities of our city. About fifty gentlemen responded to this call, and a preliminary meeting was held at the Polytechnic Institute, in October, 1858.1 A public meeting followed, a popular stock com- pany was formed, and the Academy was in- corporated in 1859. Land in Montague Street was bought for $41,000. The total expendi-
ture reached $200,000. The Academy be- came and has remained the city's leading opera house, and largest place of public meet-
1 Corporation Manual, for 1863, compiled by Henry Mc- Closkey, City Clerk.
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ing. Most of the greatest musical artists, actors, and orators in the country have been heard under its roof.
Among the leading musical associations of the city are the Apollo Club, the Seidl So- ciety, the Brooklyn Choral Society, the Arion Society, the Brooklyn Maennerchor, the Zoell- ner Maennerchor, the Amphion Musical So- ciety, the Cæcilia Ladies' Vocal Society, the Concordia Maennerchor, the Euterpe Chorus and Orchestra, the Deutscher Liederkranz, the Saengerbund, and the Prospect Heights Choral Society. In recent years there has ap- peared a disposition to regard Brooklyn as a musical city. The increase in the number of musical societies and the patronage of opera and concert have unquestionably been great. Among the musical composers, resident in the city, who have made national reputations, Dudley Buck has been of first prominence.
The Brooklyn Art Association, a develop- ment of the Sketch Club, formed by Brooklyn artists in 1857, erected a handsome building adjoining the Academy of Music in 1872. The exhibitions held in the association gal- leries have been the chief displays of pictures seen within the city. In recent years the Brooklyn Art Club, a society composed of
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artists solely, has attained a large membership, and has exhibited annually in the Art Associa- tion galleries. The Art Association main- tains a free art school. The leading society of art connoisseurs is the Rembrandt Club.
The Society of Old Brooklynites, the Frank- lin Literary Society, and the Bryant Literary Society have won prominence, and a position of influence has been assumed by the Brook- lyn Woman's Club.
In private libraries and art collections Brook- lyn has grown rich within the past twenty-five years. The development of certain valuable picture collections has induced the wish that the city had a great museum similar to the Metropolitan in New York, which might re- ceive contributions by bequest. The advance- ment of the Brooklyn Institute promises to supply this need.
The newspapers of Brooklyn have acquired an increasingly influential position in the life of the city. We have seen how the " Eagle," the " Times," and the " Freie Presse " attained their established positions. The " Standard- Union " represents some interesting newspaper history. The " Union" was started in the midst of the war period, its first editor being Edward Cary. The paper was purchased in
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1870 by Henry C. Bowen, and Gen. Stewart L. Woodford became editor-in-chief, and H. E. Bowen (son of Henry C.), the publisher. When General Woodford retired a few months later, he was succeeded by Theodore Tilton, whose skillful pen was in the service of the paper until January, 1872, when Henry C. Bowen assumed the editorship. In the follow- ing year the control of the paper passed to Benjamin F. Tracy, F. A. Schroeder, John F. Henry, and others associated with them, and Robert Burch, who afterward became mana- ging editor of the "Eagle," took the post of editor-in-chief. Later the property came into the hands of Lorin Palmer, and in 1877 the purchase of the name and good-will of the Brooklyn " Argus," which had been established as a weekly in 1866 and as a daily in 1873, resulted in the change of title to "Union- Argus." When the Union Publishing Com- pany was formed, the name "Argus" was dropped, and the paper was again known as the " Union " during the aggressive editorship of John Foord, formerly of the New York " Times," and afterward editor of "Harper's Weekly." In 1887 the "Standard," which had been established in 1884, was consolidated with the "Union," and John A. Hatton as-
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sumed the editorship of the " Standard-Union." Soon afterward William Berri became princi- pal owner of the paper, and in 1890 Murat Halstead, long the master spirit of Ohio jour- nalism, was called to the chair of editor-in- chief. The qualities which gave Halstead a national reputation while editor of the Cincin- nati " Commercial Gazette " have not failed to make his pen. a power in Brooklyn and throughout the State.
The " Citizen," established in 1886 by lead- ing Democrats of the city, since has been a forceful and consistent organ of the local Democracy. The editorship of Andrew Mc- Lean has been one of eloquence and energy, uniting a consummate knowledge of Brooklyn with a rare sagacity in estimating men and affairs.
The establishment of " Brooklyn Life" by Frederick Mitchell Munroe and John Angus McKay was a felicitous stroke in Brooklyn journalism. " Life" has enjoyed a unique popularity as a weekly review of Brooklyn social, artistic, and literary affairs.
Brooklyn journalism has been quick to re- flect the life and sentiment of the city. It has been energetic, original, and clean. The fact that only two of the newspapers, the " Eagle"
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and the "Citizen," publish Sunday editions, is one which of itself indicates the presence of a conservative element in the city. The estab- lishment of Travelers' Bureaus by the " Eagle," under the direction of the assistant business manager, Herbert F. Gunnison, was a piece of characteristic enterprise.
The political complexion of Brooklyn and Kings County during the past two or three decades has become increasingly Democratic, with periodical Republican relapses. In the incumbency of the sheriff's office, for example, there has been an interesting alternation in par- ties since 1875. During the same period the two parties have been represented with approx- imate evenness in the Mayor's office. In lead- ership of the Democratic party Henry C. Murphy was succeeded by his energetic lieu- tenant, Hugh Mclaughlin, who has retained the position at the head of the party since be- fore the Rebellion. The period and complete- ness of this local leadership probably finds no parallel in American political history. No analogous situation has ever existed in the Republican party, which has never had a gen- erally recognized leader, and whose successes at the polls have been those of a party or a public feeling in opposition to the dominant
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organized party. Both independent Demo- cratic and independent Republican movements and leaderships have played an important part in the later activities of political life.
Of the commercial development of Brooklyn since 1876, it is to be said that it has advanced more remarkably on the water front than else- where. The traffic in grain, sugar, and oil, with the extensive cooperage and ship-building and repairing operations, constitutes an impor- tant element in any estimate of the city's promi- nence in manufactures.
In the value of products 1 the sugar industry stands first, the foundry and machine-shop interests coming second, and slaughtering and meat-packing third. Fourth and fifth positions are to be given respectively to chemical indus- tries and the grinding of coffee and spices. Cordage and twine making has for a long time occupied a prominent place in Brooklyn. Other prominent industries are in boots and shoes, furnishing goods, and paper hangings. The National Meter Company plant in South Brooklyn is the largest in the world.
One of the most striking illustrations of Brooklyn's advancement in commercial affairs has been the increase in the number and im-
1 See Appendix.
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portance of its financial institutions. The city's first banks were the Long Island Bank,1 incorporated in 1824; the Brooklyn Savings Bank, incorporated in 1827; the Atlantic Bank, incorporated in 1836 ; the Bank of Wil- liamsburgh, incorporated in 1839; the South Brooklyn Savings Bank, incorporated in 1850; and the Williamsburgh Savings Bank, incor- porated in 1851. The first fire insurance company (the Brooklyn) was contemporaneous with the first bank. The Long Island Insur- ance Company was organized in 1833. In 1893 four insurance companies had their home offices in Brooklyn; there were twenty-three banks of deposit, fourteen savings banks, four safe deposit companies, seven trust companies, four title guarantee companies, and four sav- ings institutions. In the same year there were about one hundred and ten strictly local secu- rities.
1 Leffert Lefferts was the first president of the Long Island Bank.
APPENDIX
I
FRANCIS LEWIS 1
ONE of the names ever to be remembered in the history of Brooklyn, and of the State and country, is that of Francis Lewis, who was an ardent patriot, and sacrificed his all to secure the independence of the colonies. As he resided for more than twenty years on Long Island, he can justly be claimed as one of her sons, and as such richly deserves a place in her history. Few men dis- played so much zeal in the cause of liberty, or evinced such readiness to endure the hardships which the struggle necessarily entailed.
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