The civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the county of Kings and the city of Brooklyn, N. Y., from 1683 to 1884 Volume I, Part 151

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed. cn; Brockett, L. P. (Linus Pierpont), 1820-1893; Proctor, L. B. (Lucien Brock), 1830-1900. 1n
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York : W. W. Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1114

USA > New York > Kings County > Brooklyn > The civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the county of Kings and the city of Brooklyn, N. Y., from 1683 to 1884 Volume I > Part 151

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Considerable sums of money have been expended by the Commissioners in grading and surfacing, resoiling and seeding, repairing walks, replacing old and dead trees with young, thrifty stock, and maintaining the enclosing fence ; but, beyond affording convenience as a thoroughfare, to and fro, for the workmen of the vicinity, its best use is limited to providing for the chil- dren of the neighboring schools an ample play-ground.

Parks on Columbia Heights .- After the fore- ground of Brooklyn Heights had been covered by dwellings, leaving, as open spaces for air and the view of the Bay, and the city of New York, only the open- ings opposite the streets, the public, who had long en- joyed it, feared that the owners of the dwellings ad- joining would build upon these spaces, as they had the right to do, and petitioned the Legislature to lay out as parks the openings opposite Clark, Pineapple, Cran- berry and Middagh streets, the cost to be assessed on the city.

These four little parks were accordingly laid out and put in charge of commissioners, with authority to fence them and lease them to such adjoining owners who would improve them at their own expense. The city was to raise annually $500 to enable the Commission- ers to improve and maintain these parks, but has never done so. They have been maintained by rents received for some buildings on Furman street on the property.

The private owner adjoining Pineapple street built up stores to support the hill, and improved that park at large expense, under a long lease from the Commission- ers. The stores, at the end of the lease, are to become the property of the city.

The opening at the foot of Pierrepont street was de- clined to be included, as the private owner had improved it and left it open, giving the public an nnobstructed

view, so that the cost of its purchase for that purpose was unnecessary.

The surface of these parks was below the grade of Columbia Heights, and high warehouses on the west side of Furman street cut off all view. As their occu- pation by the public would destroy the grass, plants and flowers which embellish them, and such occupation would be a nuisance to the neighborhood, the Com- missioners were authorized to fence them in and ex- clude the public.

Carroll Park is the small public square, containing one and four-fifths acres, bounded by Court, Carroll, Smith and President streets, which the Park Commis- sioners, in 1867, laid out tastefully in lawn and concrete walks, and planted with trees and shrubs ; its drainage was entirely revised, and a play-ground appropriated to the children's use.

Tompkins Park occupies the two blocks between Greene, Lafayette, Tompkins and Marcy avenues, with an area of seven and three-quarters acres. Though laid out in 1839, it was not improved until 1870. The surface, originally below the surrounding streets, was raised to grade and devoted to lawn and walks, and ornamented with trees and shrubbery, although the grounds are too small to admit of extended treatment.

City Hall Park .- The plot of one and a half acres between Fulton, Court and Joralemon streets, where the City Hall stands, was a part of the old Remsen estate, and purchased by the city in 1837. For many years it was surrounded by a fence, turfed and planted with trees ; but, under the directions of the Common Council, these were all removed and the entire surface flagged.

Of the eleven public squares and greens projected on the Commissioners' map of 1839, only three (Washing- ton Park, City Park and Tompkins Park) now exist. But, with improved public taste, which years have brought, a new era has dawned upon the city in regard to its parks and places of public recreation. The success of New York's Central Park suggested a similar under- taking to Brooklyn; and, the matter being earnestly agitated by several of our foremost citizens, the first step was taken, April 18, 1859, by the passage of an act by the Legislature, appointing Messrs. John Green- wood, J. Carson Brevoort, William Wall, James Hum- phrey, John A. Cross, Nathaniel Burgs, Abraham J. Berry, Samuel S. Powell, Thomas H. Rodman, Nathan B. Morse, Thomas G. Talmadge, Jesse C. Smith, Daniel Maujer, William H. Peck, and Luther B. Wyman, as Commissioners to select ground suitable for the purpose of a great public park and parade ground. The Commissioners, ten months after the pas- sage of the act, reported a plan for eight considerable public grounds. Three of these were to be of large size, and were intended for the benefit, respectively, of the Eastern, Central, and Southern Districts of the city, while five others, more nearly of the class of Fort

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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS.

Greene, were designed for still more limited local re- sort. Of the larger grounds, one was to be connected with each of the great city reservoirs ; the third was to be at Bay Ridge. Although the city acquired some of the land, the "eight park scheme" soon came to be considered unwieldy and impracticable, and was aban- doned. The Legislature, April 17, 1860, passed an "Act to lay out a public park and a parade ground for the city of Brooklyn, and to alter the Commissioner's map of the said city." This act provided for the lay- ing out of Prospect Park, at the expense of the first twelve wards of the city ; the project for a park in the Eastern District not being pressed. The parade ground was located at East New York. The Board of Commissioners appointed were Messrs. J. S. T. Strana- han (from the outset the leading advocate, and most earnest, for this improvement), Thomas H. Rodman, E. W. Fiske, R. H. Thompson, Thomas G. Talmadge); Stephen Haynes, and Cornelius J. Sprague. On the passage of this law the Common Council of the city passed a resolution endorsing the action of the Legisla- ture as being in accordance with the generally expressed wishes of the citizens, and the Commissioners promptly entered upon their duties, selecting Mr. Egbert L. Viele as chief engineer of the proposed work.

Prospect Park .- Its site, as originally laid down in 1860, embraced all the land between Ninth avenue, Douglass street, Washington avenue and the Coney Island road. By the acts of 1861, '65, '66 and '68, its outlines were changed and its bounds enlarged, on the south and west, to their present location. In 1961, four new Commissioners, Messrs. Thomas McElrath, Joseph A. Perry, Abraham B. Baylis and Conklin Brush, were added to the seven previously appointed; while, in 1864, the number was again supplemented by appointment of Walter S. Griffith, Seymour L. Husted. and Tunis A. Bergen. From 1661 to 1565, during the war, little was done by the Commissioners beyond perfecting the city's title to the land required. In the latter year, a general plan was adopted for laying out and improving the grounds, according to the designs of Messrs. Olmstead & Vaux, which has since been ad- hered to, with slight modifications. The park now comprises the extensive tract bounded by Ninth, Flat- bush, Ocean and Franklin avenues, Coney Island road and Fifteenth street, which contains about 550 acres of land. The proposed parade ground at East New York was abandoned for a tract of forty acres adjoining the park on the south, and admirably adapted for military displays. In regard to the boundaries of the park, Mr. James S. T. Stranahan, President of the Commission, says :

"The boundaries established by the Legislature differ from those recommended by the Commission of 1859; it was in part owing to my advice that the change was made, and I advocated it because we could and did obtain, at the same expense, more than twice as much land in Flatbush as the

Commission had proposed to take in South Brooklyn, where the lots were more valuable. An area of 228 acres was taken from the town of Flatbush at a cost of $543,000; the upper portion, taken from Brooklyn, contains 350 acres and cost $2,710,000. That is to say, for each dollar spent the city has obtained between three and four times as much land on the Flatbush side as on the Brooklyn side. It was, therefore, true economy to elongate and narrow the park toward the city, and to spread it out on the cheaper land on the Flatbush side. Then, of the 128 acres on the east side of Flatbush avenue, we propose to reserve the Reservoir, with lands ad- jacent, and about 23 acres for public use, and to sell the re- mainder for strictly first-class dwelling houses. Under an act of the Legislature of 1865, the city obtained the fee of these lands by paying the residuary interests of the owners, as valued by Commissioners of the Supreme Court."

Prospect hill is the finest site that could have been chosen for a public park. It is a portion of the ele- vated range selected by General Washington, in 1776, for the erection of earthworks to defend New York against the attacks of the British ; from its height i- obtained a commanding view of Brooklyn and New York, the Jersey shore, the upper and lower bay, Long Island and the Atlantic stretching away in the dis- tance. A succession of beautiful wooded hills and broad, green meadows, interspersed with natural ponds of water, offer the greatest facilities to the landscape architect, and, in fact, require small aid from art.

In addition to the park's interesting topographical features, the grounds are consecrated by historic a-so- ciations. In the very heart of the park there is a quiet dell that was once the scene of a desperate and bloody conflict, and of the display of valor by the American army during the struggle for independence. Four hundred men of the Maryland and Delaware battal- ions, under General Sullivan, forming the center of the little army which had been stationed on the heights to prevent the passage of the British upon New York, defended this pase, under a galling fire of artillery, from sunrise till 12 o'clock on the memorable 27th of August, 1776, when they were surrounded and at- tacked in the rear and forced to retire. The little bluff on the east, commanding the Flatbush and old Post roads at their junction in the Valley Grove, was the site of a small two-gun battery which enfiladed the former road, up which the Hessians marched to assault Sullivan's lines on that day.

A few rods in front of this battery, and almost in the center of the Flatbush road, stood the Dongan oak, a famous landmark, which was felled that morning to obstruct the passage of the enemy between the hills. The battle-pass, with the site of the redoubt, are pre- served and marked for the veneration of fuvire genera- tions.

Under the judicious management of the Commission, the park has developed resources of beauty and enjoy- ment which minister to the wants and pleasures of the citizens of Brooklyn and vicinity. The entrances to the park are placed at such pointe as to best accommo-

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HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

date every section of the city, the principal one being at the corner of Vanderbilt and Flatbush avenues, and known as the Grand Plaza, in the center of which is a handsome fountain and a colossal bronze statue of Abraham Lincoln, executed by HI. K. Brown, and pre- sented to the city by the War Fund Committee of Kings County. From the entrance, the carriage road to the right leads to the place formerly well known as the Hicks Post tavern, and passes through the woods, with the "Long Meadow " on the left, to the "lake dis- trict" on the Flatbush sidc.

Here is a chain of three lakes, a mile in length, the largest of which covers an area of more than fifty acres. Midway, between the lake region and the "Long Mea- dow," is a series of hills of various sizes, adorned by terraces and arcades, with drives and walks leading to the plateau at the summit. On the Fatbush avenue side is the "Dcer Paddock," and just beyond, the " Battle Pass." These are the main features of the plan, but pages might be written of the details which comprise every species of adornment known to modern landscape architects, such as gardens with rare flowers and exotics, shady dells, labyrinthine mazes and wind- ing walks. The Commissioners have treated the park in a broad and judicious manner, with large meadows, stretches of woodland and water, concealing art in the improved natural appearance. The beautiful turf and wooded areas, as well as the walks and roadways, have been thrown open to the public, with the least restric- tion. The people at large make the freest use of the grounds, and the lovers of boating, base-ball, cricket, lacrosse, croquet, archery or skating, throng the park on all occasions, when the weather is propitious for these respective pleasures. Excellent music is also provided every Saturday afternoon during the Summer.

The Park Commissioners were selected from all parts of the city, as a non-partisan board, and have dis- charged their responsibilities gratuitously, and in such a manner as to deserve and receive the gratitude of the citizens of Brooklyn. Their names and years of ser- vice are as follows :

James S. T. Stranahan, 1861-'82 ; Thomas II. Rod. man, 1861-'2 ; Edwards W. Fiske, 1861-'72 ; Richard H. Thompson, 1861-'2 ; Thomas G. Talmage, 1861-'2 ; Stephen Haynes, 1861-'79 ; Cornelius J. Sprague, 1861-'8 ; Thomas McElrath, 1862-'8 ; Conklm Brush, 1862-'7 ; Abraham B. Baylis, 1862-'82 ; Joseph A. Perry, 1862 ; Abiel A. Low, 1865-'72 ; Seymour L. IIusted, 1865-'72 ; Tunis G. Bergen, 1865-'8 ; John H. Prentice, 1865-'79 ; Walter S. Griffith, 1865-'70 ; William Marshall, 1869-'82 ; Isaac Van Anden, 1869- '72 ; Darwin R. James, 1879-'82 ; Alfred S. Barnes, 1880-'2; Isaac S. Catlin, 1879 ; Christian C. Christien- sent, 1880-'2 ; Stephen V. White, 1880-'2 ; Raphael C. Stearns, 1880-'2 ; Samuel S. Powell, 1879 ; and the following mayors, ex-officio : Hon. Martin Kalbfleisch, Hon. Samuel S. Powell, Hon. John W. Hunter, Hon,

Frederick H. Schroeder, Hon. James Howell and IIon. Seth Low.

The officers of the Board have been as follows: Pres- ident, James S. T. Stranahan, 1861-'82 ; William B. Kendall, 1882-'4. Secretary, Richard H. Thompson, 1861-'2 ; W. S. Griffith, 1865-'9; John H. Prentice, 1870-'2; Francis G. Quevedo, 1879-'82 ; George W. Chauncy, 1882-'4. Chief Engineer, C. C. Martin, 1867-'70 ; John Bogart, 1871 ; John Y. Culyer, 1872- '84. Assistant Engineer, John Bogart, 1866-'70; John Y. Culyer, 1866-'71.

The expense of creating and maintaining the park has been large-about nine millions; but a glance at the work done, and the good results therefrom, will show that the money was well used. "The park has proved itself a vast, healthful, vitalizing force to the people of this city, and its worth can not be estimated pecuniarily ; its uses stimulate the cnergies, and quicken the pulses of thousands ; its pervasive influence elevates the moral tone of the community, and its great mission is only just begun." Its necessity is proved by the tables which show that the number of visitors in 1879 reached 4,090,271, and this has been largely exceeded in the subsequent years.

HON. J. S. T. STRANAHAN .- The early American col- onies, which subsequently crystallized into the United States, never received a greater accession of strength than from the emigration which, commencing about 1684, from the north of Ireland, had, by the middle of the last century, increased at the rate of twelve thousand per year-all Protestants, and generally Presbyterians. The New England colonies, and Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Maryland and the Carolinas espe- cially profited by this influx. The new-comers were the descendants of Scotchmen who were first induced by King James I. to repeople the northern counties of Ireland. Their numbers were largely increased by the religious persecutions of the Stuart dynasty, and by the rebellions of 1715 and 1745. But, by their thrift, enterprise and success in manufactures, they attracted the cupidity of an avaricious government, whose exac- tions and rigorous regulations compelled them to seek beyond the sea a freer verge for their religious and in- dustrial life. To these Scotch-Irish emigrants and their descendants, as the student of American history well knows, the United States owe much of their glory, wealth and enterprise. One of these emigrants was James Stranahan (Strachan, or Strahan, derived from the parish of Strahan, Kincardineshire, Scotland), born 1699, who, in 1725, settled at Scituate, R. I. He was a prosperous and intelligent farmer, and died at Plain- field, Conn., in 1792, aged 93 years. James, the eldest of his three sons, a thrifty farmer and Revolutionary soldier, also lived and died at Plainfield, and his fifth son, Samuel, born 1772, married Lynda Josselyn, and became one of the first settlers of Peterboro, Madison

J. J. A. Stranalato

599

BIOGRAPHY OF HON. J. S. T. STRANAHAN.

County, N. Y. His son, James S. T. Stranahan, the subject of this sketch, was born at Peterboro, N. Y., April 25, 1808. Amid the hills of central New York, on the farm, and among his father's mills, he passed most happily the precious season of boyhood, until that father's death, in 1816, awoke him to the responsi- bilities and the sterner outlook of approaching man- hood.

His widowed mother soon married again, and, alter- nating his winters and summers in attending school and aiding his stepfather in the operations of farming and stock-raising, he passed his time until, at the age of seventeen, he assumed the responsibility of his own support. Further education in the academies of the country, to which he added the discipline of one season of teaching, fitted him for the duties of civil engineer; but abandoning this in a larger view of opening trade with the Indians, he visited, in 1827-'8, the region of the upper lakes. But, after several interviews with General Lewis Cass (then Governor of the Territory of Michigan), and several journeys of exploration in the then Western wilderness, he abandoned the project and formed a partnership with some gentlemen of Albany for dealing in wool. In 1832, however, Gerrit Smith, a prominent capitalist, as well as philanthropist, who had known him from his earliest years, induced him to found a manufacturing village in a township owned by him in Oneida County. To build a town was a work that gave full scope to Mr. Stranahan's powers, which had as yet, however, the development of only twenty-four years' experience. But he made it a suc- cess, so that the town (Florence) increased from a pop- ulation of a few hundred to that of two or three thous- ands. From Florence he was sent to the Assembly in 1838, elected on the Whig ticket from a Democratie county; and, though comparatively young, he was judged a fitting compeer for men of ability, an unusual number of whom were gathered in that Assembly, owing to the political struggle connected with the sus- pension of specie payments, and the agitation of the Sub-Treasury act urged upon Congress by the then President, Martin Van Buren. In 1840, he removed to Newark, New Jersey, and became largely interested in the construction of railroads. He was among the first who, by taking stock in payment for construction, be- came owners and hence controllers of the roads they built. In 1848, Mr. Stranahan was elected Alderman of Brooklyn, to which city he had removed in 1844; was nominated, but defeated in the election for Mayor in 1850. In 1854, during the tremendous excitement growing out of the repcal of the Missouri compromise, and when the North was aflame over the anti-slavery agitation, Mr. Stranahan was nominated for Congress; and, although he ran in a strong Democratic district, he was triumphantly elected after a vigorous contest. In the House of Representatives his course was marked by a rigid attention to his duties, and he served his | been even a greater boon to the public than it is.

constituents with the utmost fidelity during the stormy period which he passed in Washington.

In 1857, when the first Metropolitan Police Commis- sion was organized, Mr. Stranahan was appointed a inember, and was active in that board during the strug- gle between the new force and the old New York muni- cipal police, who revolted under the leadership of Fer- nando Wood, then Mayor. During this time Mr. Stranalian was an carnest Republican, althoughi never allowing his party animosities to influence his personal relations. In 1864 he was made one of the Presidenl- tial electors on the Lincoln and Johnson ticket; a fitting consummation of his previous action as a delegate from the State of New York to the Republican National Conventions of 1860 and 1864, in both of which he voted for the nomination of Lineoln for the Presi- dency.

During the war, Mr. Stranalian was President of the War Fund Committee, an organization of over onc hundred leading men of Brooklyn, and whose gener- ous patriotism originated, in the sessions of this organ- ization, the Brooklyn Union, that there might be one journal of that city in full accord with the Government. Its purpose was to encourage enlistments, raise money for the soldiers, and further the efforts of Government in the prosecution of the war by every means. Mr. Stranahan's vigorous qualities, his great executive abil- ity and his confident view of the future werc of untold service in promoting the efficiency of the Committee, so that it did not flag in its efforts till the country's need ceased in the subduing of the rebellion. In the sani- tary aid it rendered it was allied with the Woman's Relief Association, of which Mrs. Stranahan was Pres- ident, and through the combined efforts of the two or- ganizations culminating in the great sanitary fair, four hundred thousand dollars in money was paid into the sanitary fund at one time. Since the war, Mr. Strana- han, though true to the principles of the Republican party, has not participated in polities.

For many years he has been closely identified with many of the most important Brooklyn enterprises. His extended services at the head of the Park Commission have written his name imperishably upon the pages of Brooklyn's history. Becoming President of the Com- mission under the legislative act of 1860, he remained in offiec until 1882. Under his direction, the plans for Prospect Park werc matured and carried into exeeu- tion, and this magnificent city pleasure ground will ever remain a monument to the ability and intelligence with which he gratuitously served the community. He was also the father of the splendid system of boulevards, the Ocean parkway and Eastern parkway, which give to Brooklyn a system of drives unsurpassed by any in the world. The Concourse at Coney Island also grew out of his instrumentality, and but for the niggardly appropriations by the county authorities, would have

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HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

The Brooklyn Eagle, a paper opposed to Mr. Strana- han in politics, although generally just in its criticisms of even political opponents, in commenting upon his retiring from a service in which he had been so long engaged, said:

"Prospect Park is pre-eminently his work. But for his foresight and perseverance we should not now be in posses- sion of that noble resort; or, if possessed of it, the purchase money would have been double the amount paid under Mr. Stranahan. Coney Island may also be pointed to as bearing the mark of his wise activity. Before any railroad or hotel man thought of discounting its future, the Park Commis- sioner saw the possibilities of the place. To his mind the natural boundary of Brooklyn on the southwestern side was the Atlantic Ocean, and he took steps to secure to the city the advantage of an attractive path from the beach to the center of population. By projecting the boulevard and the concourse, he may be said to have called the Coney Island of to-day into existence, an existence which has already been worth a great deal more to Brooklyn than the cost of all the public works in which he has had a hand, and which must go on increasing in value. The truth is, that Mr. Stranahan is one of the very few men who have creative genius. In the not remote future, the question will be asked by intelli- gent writers, who were the real architects of Brooklyn? who were the men who lifted her out of the cow-paths of village advance and put her on the broad track of Metropolitan im- portance? When that question is answered, the name named with greatest honor will be that of James S. T. Stranahan."

Criticism that would be adverse to him, testifies un- wittingly to his merit. Said a daily paper opposing him: "Mr. Stranahan is the Baron Haussman of Brook- lyn." And again, speaking of that renovator of the old-time city: "Baron Haussman is the Stranahan of Paris." Said Mayor Kalbfleisch, in an opposing speech : " This increased taxation, etc., I attribute to the Park Commission, and by the Park Commission I mean James S. T. Stranahan, for he is the Park Commission."

The Union Ferry Company for more than thirty years has had the advantage of his counsel and associa- tion; and under his direction was developed the great Atlantic Dock improvement, of which full mention will be found in our Chapter on Commerce.

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The civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the county of Kings and the city of Brooklyn, N. Y., from 1683 to 1884 Volume I, Part 151

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed. cn; Brockett, L. P. (Linus Pierpont), 1820-1893; Proctor, L. B. (Lucien Brock), 1830-1900. 1n Publication date: 1884 Publisher: New York : W. W. Munsell & Co. Number of Pages: 1114

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed. cn; Brockett, L. P. (Linus Pierpont), 1820-1893; Proctor, L. B. (Lucien Brock), 1830-1900. 1n
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York : W. W. Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1114