USA > New York > Queens County > Long Island City > History of Long Island City, New York. A record of its early settlement and corporate progress. Sketches of the villages that were absorbed in the growth of the present municipality. Its business, finance, manufactures, and form of government, with some notice of the men who built the city > Part 7
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IML
DAIMLER MOTOR CO
DAIMLER MOTOR CO'S. M'F'G. WORKS.
NEW YORK OFFICE INIE. 14THST.
feet deep, but the company now oeeupies a frontage of 150 feet and is constantly adding to its plant as the increasing necessities of the business demand.
Until recently the company only built motors up to ten horse-power, but it is now prepared to receive orders for sixteen, twenty, and twenty-five horse-power motors, and expects in the near future to increase the applianees at its command so as to increase the motors to sixty horse-power. The uses to which these motors may be applied are various and multiform. They are already in use for all sorts of purposes where power is required, and are adaptable to almost any condition, owing to the lightness of the motor in proportion to the power generated. The Daimler motor is in use all over the world in launehes, both for pleasure and business traffic, carrying freight as well as passen- gers. The motors have also been utilized for harbor towing purposes and as tug-boats in shallow waters, on account of their light draught. They have also been mounted on trueks and wagons for
freighting purposes. Horseless earriages, driven by the Daimler motors, have been used in Central Park and on suburban roads, and have given great satisfaction.
The motor has also been put to the odd use of spraying trces in city parks for the killing of insects, and of turning grindstones for wandering scissor grinders. It is used to propel inspection
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HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND CITY.
cars over railroads and, when fitted to a traveling electric-light plant, attracted much attention at the Columbian Exposition at Chicago. The wagon, thus fitted out, is thought to be of the greatest possible use for temporary illumination of large buildings or fields where battles have been fought.
The motor has been also applied to fire engines for smaller towns, a perpendicular stream of 120 feet being easily thrown.
Daimler launches are on many German steamers, are employed in harbors, and in cases of emergency, as in the following instance, during the Columbian Exposition :
A sailboat in which were six persons capsized in Lake Michigan. The Captain of the Daimler boat hastened to the rescue, and a fleet of steam launches followed, but the Daimler boat, which developed a speed of sixteen miles an hour, easily distanced all the other craft and had rescued and taken on board all the imperiled persons before the other boats reached the spot, the last person rescued having been taken out of the water after he had sunk for the second time. Had the Daimler boat been two minutes later, at least two of the imperiled lives would have been lost.
The Daimler motor launches are also very extensively used in Europe as police boats for harbor and river service, and quite a number of them are in service in the United States Navy, as well as in the navies of all the European powers. The German Government is just now especially interested in utilizing the Daimler motor for torpedo-boat purposes.
A Daimler motor car is put to a curious use at the great Krupp Gun Works, in Germany, where one of them has been constantly employed for the last six years. At these works there is naturally a great deal of experimenting in regard to the merits of new guns. The distance nowadays between the targets and the gun is much greater than formerly. Officers detailed by their respective Governments to watch these experiments are required, first to see the shot fired, and then to proceed as quickly as possible to the target and note the effect of the shot. Formerly they rode to the target on horseback ; now they ride to the target in a Daimler motor car, which runs over a single track laid for the purpose, and much greater speed is obtained.
As a matter of economy, the motor has been adopted on certain of the German railroad lines on which the traffic is intermittent. The lines run from outlying farming villages to the contiguous market towns, where there are periodical market days. On such days the traffic is very heavy, and long trains drawn by the regular steam locomotives are run, but on other than market days the traffic is very light, and it was found that on such days there was no money in running the regular trains, as the cost was too heavy. So on what might be called the off days, the Daimler motor is used to draw single cars, which are sufficient to accommodate the lighter traffic, and thus a great saving in the running expenses is made. The Daimler Company in Germany has just received a large order for the motors from several of the railroads on which they have been tried and have proved such an eminent success.
From the facts given above it is apparent to what many and diversified uses the Daimler motor has already been put, but what promises, after all, to be the greatest achievement in this direction is the perfected horseless carriage or wagon, which must prove of vast importance to the commercial world, and which opens up a great field to the practical use of the motor. Wherever a Daimler motor has entered a race it has invariably come out victorious over all competitors, with a great margin to spare. Recently one of the Daimler carriages went from Paris to Bordeaux and back, a distance of 750 miles, in forty-eight hours, a feat which has never been equaled by any similar machine. But not only for pleasure vehicles have they been employed and successfully used, but they have been also utilized for heavy traffic, such as dry goods delivery wagons, omnibuses, vans and heavy trucks, as they are now being built in Germany up to sixteen horse-power. Large dry goods houses and other stores, having many parcels to deliver, will doubtless use them instead of the delivery wagons now in use, sending them to the outskirts of the city and the suburbs, and they will find this method of transporting their packages both rapid and cheap as compared with the present way.
A three horse-power motor, it has been demonstrated, can be run at a cost of 3 cents an hour. Such a motor can do the work of two horses, which, of course, costs many times more than that amount.
The machine is easily handled and does not require the services of a licensed engineer. It is cleanly and does not easily get out of order, and has many other advantages over horse traction.
A very interesting festival took place last December at the home of Mr. Gottlieb Daimler, the inventor of the motor now so generally in use, when the completion of the one thousandth motor was
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HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND CITY.
celebrated. The town of Cantsatt, in Germany, where Mr. Daimler lives, and where the works are situated, was decorated and illuminated in honor of the event, and the inventor received numerous
LOUIS VON BERNUTH.
congratulations on his success. A similar event will probably be soon celebrated at the factories in France, and at Steinway, L. I.
The works at Steinway have been greatly enlarged recently, and active preparations are now making to increase the facilities so as to keep pace with the orders that are continually coming in from all quarters. Although it is found impossible at the present to fill orders promptly, the Company will strain every nerve to push the horseless carriage industry as much as is consistent with the high class of work it has always turned out. At present the Company is building the smaller yachts from sixteen feet up to twin- screw boats from sixty to seventy feet long. The larger motors, now under way, will enable the company to build boats one hundred feet long and over. For this purpose a large boat-building establishment has been constructed on the water's edge at Steinway, with a roomy interior harbor or basin where the boats will be sheltered from the spring and autumn gales.
The officers of the Daimler Motor Company are : William Steinway, President ; Frederick
Kuebler, Vice-President ; Louis von Bernuth, Treasurer, and llerman E. Kleber, Secretary. Mr. Kuebler is the General Manager at the Steinway works. -
ASTORIA HOMESTEAD CO.
The Astoria Homestead Company, founded and developed by Mr. William Steinway, has been a potent factor in building up and populating a picturesque section of country which had been neglected, and which, as it has been proved, was exactly suitable for homes of working men. After Steinway & Sons had acquired the tract of land on the Long Island shore and had founded the village of Steinway, the senior member of the firm, despite the call upon his time and talents, due to the management of the largest piano manufacturing concern in the world, was, like Alexander the Great, looking about for more worlds to conquer. Despite his many engagements, he found time to look about him for investments in the neighborhood of the property on Long Island, which he owned, and on which the large factory of the firm had been erected. With almost prophetic vision he foresaw that it would only be a question of time, and a comparatively short time at that, when the facilities of communication between New York City and the contiguous shores of Long Island would be so increased by ferries, railroads, bridges and tunnels that the Long Island shores would be chosen for modest homes for artisans, clerks with limited incomes, and thrifty mechanics, away from expensive city dwellings. He was also convinced that Long Island City would sooner or later become a part of New York City, and what may have been considered by some of his contemporaries a visionary
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HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND CITY.
scheme, has now actually come to pass. Mr. Steinway has the satisfaction of seeing what he had long contemplated as a possibility ripen into an actual fact.
In pursuance of his ideas a large tract of unoccupied land was purchased, and the Astoria Homestead Company was incorporated. From a comparatively small beginning this corporation has grown to be a mighty concern, embodying as it does all the property owned by Mr. Steinway personally on the Long Island shores and in New York, Long Island City and other parts of the country. Its capital is $1, 000, 000.
Immediately upon acquiring the property on Long Island, improvements were com- menced. The land, where necessary, was graded and leveled, and laid out in building plots. Roads were made and streets were cut through the property. A large number of cottages and dwellings were erected by the company, and were either sold or rented to respectable people on easy terms, thus affording to a great many deserving people, healthy, airy and comfortable homes within easy distance of their occupations in New York. What a boon this has been to the families who had before been cooped up for years in the dark, ill-ventilated, and unwholesome tenements may be readily imagined. But the work of the company does not stop at simply building homes for tenants and occupants. It has built schoolhouses, fire engine houses and other necessary public structures, and has provided places of recreation and pleasure grounds at the disposal of the residents, and in many other ways has contributed to the comfort, the safety and well-being of the community.
The liberal and charitable nature of Mr. Steinway was evidenced by the assistance given by him to the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor of this city. A large area of the property on the Long Island shore, owned by the company, is composed of vacant lands. When the association appealed to the owners of vacant lands for the temporary use of it for cultivation by the deserving poor, Mr. Steinway at once gave permission to the association to parcel out the unoccupied but very fertile lands of the company among such families of the deserving poor as it might select, entirely free of charge. The association furnished the occupants of these vacant lots with the necessary tools and utensils, seed and fertilizers, had the land plowed for them, and then simply required them to look after the cultivation of the land allotted to them. The association expected them to reimburse itself for the advances made to the tillers of the soil at the beginning of the season from a certain percent- age of the products raised; the rest of the crop, which the occupants did not consume themselves, they had the privilege of selling to the neighbors or sending it to market to be disposed of to the best advantage. The association only exacted that each occupant of a lot should, during the season, devote a part of his or her time to the care and cultivation of a portion of the land which the association retained as a sort of home farm for the purpose of enabling it to realize enough money for the purchase of seeds and fertilizers for the next season's work. The surplus from this farm for last year was $6000, and the association offered this sum to Mr. Steinway, but with his usual liberal spirit he refused to accept it. He told the association that he was not in the habit of doing charity by halves, and, therefore, it was his desire that the surplus money be employed in furnishing seed, fertilizers and agricultural implements for the following season. He also gave the association the free use of ninety additional acres of the unoccupied lands of the Homestead Company for the present year. It is the greatest source of satisfaction to Mr. Steinway to drive through these lands with his little grandson, William Steinway von Bernuth, beside him, and see these miniature farms with their ripening crops of potatoes, beans, oats and garden truck that are raised on these vacant lots.
In addition to the dwellings which have been built and are occupied on the lands of the Astoria Homestead Company, there have been also a number of large factories erected there, giving employment to hundreds of men. One of the latest acquisitions to these factories is that which has - just been completed by the Virgil Practice Clavier Company, situated on Theodore street. The building has a frontage of one hundred and seventy-five feet and is two hundred feet deep. It has been occupied but a short time.
The property of the Astoria Homestead Company will be rendered still more accessible when the projected Blackwell's Island Bridge is built. The New York terminus of this bridge will be at Sixty- fourth street and Fourth avenue, and the Long Island terminus will be on the land owned by the Company. The railroad tunnel, beginning at Hunter's Point, passing under the East River and Blackwell's Island, and under Forty-second street, and thence, under the North River to the Jersey shore, will, when constructed, make a valuable connection with the Long Island Railroad and tend to
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HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND CITY.
improve property on all parts of Long Island. A bridge has also been projected from New York to Long Island, passing over Ward's Island, and the Long Island terminus of this bridge will be on the land of the Company.
The officers of the Astoria Homestead Company are Louis von Bernuth, President ; David Horn, Vice-President ; H. D. Low, Treasurer, and Russell Schaller, Secretary.
Remarkable interests, therefore, have been centered in this favored section of Long Island City, because remarkable men have arisen and chosen it for the scene of a vast enterprise, and wise philanthropy. The genius of the firm of Steinway & Sons has given world-wide prestige to our municipality and placed humanity under a debt which will be long recognized in history.
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CHAPTER IV.
LONG ISLAND CITY.
BOUNDARIES AND NATURAL ADVANTAGES-NAME-ACCOUNT OF INCORPORATION-ORGANIZATION UNDER
CHARTER -POLITICAL CHANGES-SCHOOLS, CHURCHES, BANKS, BRIDGES HISTORICALLY SKETCHED-THE MEDICAL PROFESSION-THE BAR-THE CITY DEPARTMENTS
AND OFFICIALS-UNION COLLEGE-HISTORICAL INCIDENTS.
LONG ISLAND CITY was formed by the consolidation of Blissville, Hunter's Point, Astoria, L Ravenswood, Dutch Kills, Steinway and Middletown under a common municipal govern- ment. It is separated from Brooklyn on the south by Newtown Creek, from New York on the west by the
the town of Newtown the old Bowery Bay Cemetery road. Its eastern boundaries are Bay. The City stra- the very heart of New miles of water front, developed, offers facil- of the world and is any district within the Newtown Creek, de. its commercial advan- depth, and in the in- bridges spanning its annual mercantile ton- valued at $20,000, 000. the East River from though already show- velopment, awaits for of these larger in- to their service the the approach of this perity, the present industries are a pro- suburbs of New York City as a manufac- HENRY S. ANABLE. (Deceased. ) sive manufacturing the largest on the continent, have been located within its bounds for a greater or less period, demonstrating the conditions inviting to capital. Spacious and numerous sites still remain. Economic production and unexcelled transportation facilities will place them in certain demand when a broader municipal policy shall smite the demagogue from political ascendancy and power.
East River, and from on the southeast by turnpike and Calvary northern and north- Hell Gate and Bowery tegically lics opposite York City. Its ten though but partially ities for the shipping scarcely surpassed by waters of the metropolis. spite the limitation of tages in the want of adequacy of the draw- banks, represents an nage of 2,000,000 tons The wharfage along the Creek to Astoria, ing considerable de- the most part the rise terests which beckon fleets of the sea. Of era of greater pros- growth of capitalized phetic indication. The have no rival to this turing center. Exten- plants, some of them
It being the western terminal of the Long Island Railroad, Long Island City is a distributing point, not only for the traffic of Long Island, but for a majority of its population who have business intercourse with New York. Thirty fourth street ferry has probably more railroads focussed at its gates than any other ferry on Manhattan Island. Communication with the lower part of New York has long been maintained by James Slip ferry, and in summer months by steamboat from Hunter's Point to Wall Street.
The uplands of Dutch Kills, Astoria, and the sections of the city to the east and north. east, are well adapted for residence. Proximity to the great business centers of the
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HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND CITY.
metropolis and the unity of interests which are inseparable from consolidation, are destined to result in great appreciation of property values.
ORIGIN OF THE NAME.
The honor of first suggesting "Long Island City" as the name of the united villages of Hunter's Point, Ravenswood, and Astoria probably belongs to Captain Levy Hayden, Super- intendent of the Marine Railway, formerly located at Hunter's Point. In 1853, or thereabouts, it is chronicled, a member of the Bebee family, of Ravenswood, was induced to take a number of shares of the railway stock, and inquired from Captain Hayden what name should be given to the concern and to the surrounding country, which was then wild and undeveloped. The Captain suggested that before many years the several communities would probably be united in a large city, the name of which he said should be "Long Island City." An immense flag with this name written in full was hoisted upon the building.
Thus, in this patriotic manner, the name, by which the coming city became known to his- tory, had its auspicious origin.
The name became fixed in the public mind by the publisher of the Star, who in May, 1865, had opened a printing office at 63 Vernon avenue.
BODINE CASTI.E.
Confident of a coming city and its prosperous future, he issued the initial number of his new publi- cation, Friday, October 20, 1865, under the title of Long Island City Star. From this time the Star devoted its energies to the realiza- tion of the project, which steadily gained favor, of incorporating the several sections of the old "Out Plantations " into one. When stecess was achieved after pro- longed preliminary work, the name which had been inscribed upon "Old Glory " prophetically and flung to the breeze twenty-seven years before, and subsequently adopted for the heading of the newspaper, was recognized as a befitting one for the new munici- pality, which hendeforth became known as Long Island City.
Situated as this portion of Newtown was relative to the great cities of New York and Brooklyn rising on the southern and western boundaries, it inevitably came under the over shadowing influence of those vast communities. Farm lands soon' had greater than agricultural values. Population, houses for business and residence, and intercourse between the various parts of the territory rapidly increased, requiring improved conditions. An awakening spirit of progress was manifested in popular expressions of discontent. That a higher order of things should prevail, and that a prosperous and populous city could be built from the clustered villages of western Newtown, had long been nrged by progressive citizens. Hunter's Point had no pavements save a sidewalk of flags up Borden Avenue. Roads were of ordi- nary dirt and often impassibly muddy. There were no sewers, no lights, and no water except that obtained from surface pumps. Fever and ague, of the kind that made the bones to rattle and shake, had prevailed from the time when the memory of the oldest inhabitant ran not to the contrary. In the decade preceding 1870 it assumed a typhoid form and prevailed several times as an epidemic. In 1865 the incorporation of Hunter's Point as a village had been proposed as a relief from existing conditions. The press, as represented by the Star, warmly espoused a larger movement, looking toward the organization of a city. Henry S. AAnable, Esq., representing the extensive interests of Union College, earnestly supported the latter
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HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND CITY.
proposition. Throughout the lower part of the town sympathy thercwith was universal. The outspoken opposition of Astoria was to be expected in the nature of the case. That village had good streets, good lights, good schools, and all the appointments of a first-elass village. However, public sentiment developed in favor of a municipal government, and culminated, in the fall of 1869, in a meeting held in Mr. Anable's office on Borden
Avenuc. Besides Mr. Anable, there were present twelve or fifteen leading citizens, including William Bridge, Thomas H. Todd, and Charles Stevens. The propo- sition to draft a charter was favorably considered, and the work was as- signed to Mr. Anable, whose report at a sub- sequent meeting received unanimous approbation. Interest now ran high. Popular assemblies con- vened, and agitation for incorporation as a city ruled the hour.
THE GREATER NEW YORK HOTEL.
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SCENE AT JACKSON AND VERNON AVENUES.
The bill for the in- corporation of the vil- lages of Astoria, Ravens- wood, Hunter's Point, Dutch Kills, Blissville, Middletown, and Bowery Bay, under the proposed eharter, was presented in the Legislature by Assemblyman Francis B. Baldwin, by whom, with the earnest support of Mr. Anable and others, its passage was secured through the Assembly and Senate. When in the hands of Governor John T. Hoffman, it met pronounced opposition at a hearing granted pre- paratory to executive action. Friends and opponents of the charter were present in large numbers, each side being represented by counsel. Remonstrances and arguments were presented against executive approval, while voluminous petitions evinced prevailing public sen- timent in favor. Ex-Governor Lowe and Henry S. Anable, Esq., were the leading advocates of the passage of the charters. BIRTH OF LONG ISLAND CITY.
The bill, having received the unanimous assent of the Legislature, was signed by Governor Hoffman, May 4, 1870. The intelligence of the Governor's favorable action was received throughout the newly constituted city with expressions of approbation.
THE CHARTER AND ITS LEADING FEATURES.
The most important provisions of the Charter were as follows:
I. THE BOUNDARIES OF THE CITY.
All that part of the town of Newtown, in the County of Queens, included within the following boundaries, to wit:
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HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND CITY.
Beginning at the mouth of Newtown Creek, on the east side of the East River, running thence casterly, along the center-line of said Newtown Creek to the easterly side of Penny Bridge (so-called); thence northerly, along the center of the Bushwick and Newtown turnpike and road from Calvary Cemetery to Astoria to the intersection of said road with the old Dutch Kills road; thence easterly, to the center of Woodside avenue; thencc northerly, along the center of said avenue to Jackson avenue; thence northeasterly, along the center of the Bowery Bay road to high water mark in Bowery Bay; thence westerly, along high water mark to the harbor commissioners' bulkhead and pier line on the East River; thence southerly, along said harbor commissioners' said bulkhead and pier line, on the East River; to the place of beginning, shall be a city known as Long Island City; and the citizens of this State, from time to time inhabitants within said boundaries, shall be a corporation by the name of "Long Island City," and as such may sue and be sued, complain and defend, in any court, make and use a common seal and alter it at pleasure; and may receive by gift, grant, devise, bequest or purchase, and hold and survey such real and personal property as the purposes of said corporation may require.
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