On the 5th of April, 1853, an act was passed by the Legislature requiring that whenever the Penitentiary should be ready for the reception of prisoners, the Board of Supervisors should file a certificate thereof in the office of the clerk of the county, and publish a notice thereof for three weeks in one or more newspapers, and that thereafter all persons who, on conviction, are liable to imprisonment for not less than thirty days, should be sent there by the magistrates. The Penitentiary is situated on a spot familiarly called Crow Hill, and is bounded by Nostrand, Rogers, President, and Carroll streets. It faces on Carroll Street. Prisoners have been sent here from all parts of the State, and, through the efficient management of its wardens, it has been rendered nearly, if not wholly, self-supporting.
The increase of business and the unsuitableness of location rendered it necessary to change the place for holding the courts. The Legislature was again appealed to, and in 1853 an act was passed authorizing the county to borrow a sum not to exceed $100,000, to purchase a site, and erect buildings for such county offices as the Board of Supervisors might designate. Many sites were offered, and various and diverse propositions and suggestions were made. Some were anxious to have the Court House built on Fort Greene, holding that it would, from its elevation, give character to the building. The matter slumbered until October 10, 1855, when it was again brought up and postponed indefinitely. The difficulty of securing a suitable site now presented itself. Seventeen lots on Vanderbilt Avenue near Baltic Street were proposed, and the Board resolved to purchase them. Soon after the purchase the people, realizing that it was not a proper place, instituted opposition.
When the City Hall was opened the courts were transferred to that building. The room long occupied by Justice Courtney was used by the Supreme and county courts. A small room opposite, now occupied by the Bureau of Elections, was appropriated for the purpose of holding special terms. The county clerk's office occupied a part of the apartments of the present comptroller. The surrogate's court occupied the Court Street portion of the comptroller's present rooms, whilst the register's office was opposite, in the rooms of the present auditor. The city court was held in the room now used by the city clerk. Hall's Exchange Building, in which the courts had been held, was destroyed in the great fire of 1848, and the courts were, thereupon, transferred to the City Hall.
In those days the sheriff lived with his family in the jail on Raymond Street.
If the city was forced to look to the building of its penal institutions and courts of justice, institutions of another kind were springing into being. In 1854 the Brooklyn Female Academy became the Packer Collegiate Institute for Girls; and in the same year a boy's academy was established, with the title of the Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute. The development of these important educational institutions has been one of the most gratifying incidents in the life of the city.
As early as 1848 there had been serious talk of the civic union of Williamsburgh and Brooklyn.
The village of Williamsburgh was incorporated in 1827. Its boundaries then were: "Beginning at the bay, or river, opposite to the town of Brooklyn, and running thence easterly along the division line between the towns of Bushwick and Brooklyn, to the lands of Abraham A. Remsen; thence northerly by the same to a road or highway, at a place called Sweed's Fly; thence by the said highway to the dwelling-house, late of John Vandervoort, deceased; thence in a straight line northerly, to a small ditch or creek, against the meadow of John Skillman; thence by said creek to Norman's Hill; thence by the middle or centre of Norman's Hill to the East River; thence by the same to the place of beginning."
The first officers of the Board of Trustees were Noah Waterbury, president; Abraham Meserole, secretary; and Lewis Sanford, treasurer. In 1829 Williamsburgh had a population of 1007. In 1835 Williamsburgh and Bushwick together had a population of 3314. It was in this year that the "Williamsburgh Gazette" was started. Within a few years came the Williamsburgh Lyceum, the Houston Street Ferry, the "Williamsburgh Democrat," and a Bible Society.
By chapter 144 of Laws of 1850 (p. 242), passed April 4, 1850, so much of the territory of the city of Brooklyn as lay east of the centre of Division Avenue, between the intersection of South Sixth Street, in the village of Williamsburgh, and Flushing Avenue, in the city of Brooklyn, was annexed to the village of Williamsburgh; the city of Brooklyn was divided into eleven wards (therein described), and the Common Council of the city was authorized, under certain restrictions and limitations, to cause streets and avenues to be opened and widened, and to be regulated, graded, and paved, public squares and parks to be opened, regulated, and ornamented, etc., and to close up and discontinue roads, streets, lanes, and avenues, etc.[25]
By chapter 102 of Laws of 1835 (p. 88), passed April 18, 1835, a portion of the town of Bushwick—"beginning at the southeast corner of the present village of Williamsburgh, running thence southeasterly along the line that divides the town of Bushwick and the city of Brooklyn, to a turnpike road leading from Brooklyn to Newtown and Flushing, at a point near, and southwesterly of, the house of Charles DeBevoise, thence running along said road northeasterly to the crossroads, thence northerly along the road leading to Bushwick Church to the Williamsburgh and Jamaica turnpike, thence northerly along the road, passing the church, and leading to Newtown Bridge, about twelve hundred feet, to an abrupt angle in said road turning to the east, thence westerly about eighteen hundred feet until it intersects the head of navigation of a branch of Bushwick Creek, thence westerly along said branch creek, according to its meanderings, to the main creek, which is the present boundary of the said village of Williamsburgh, thence southerly along the eastern boundary line of the said village of Williamsburgh to the place of beginning"—was annexed to Williamsburgh, and Nicholas Wyckoff, David Johnson, Peter Stagg, Robert Ainslie, and John Leonard were appointed commissioners to lay out streets.