A History of the City of Brooklyn and Kings County, Volume II.

by Stephen M. Ostrander

During the year 1887–88 a new era in the history of the Institute was inaugurated. The board of trustees determined to make the property of the Institute the nucleus of a broad and comprehensive institution for the advancement of science and art, and its membership a large and active association, laboring not only for the advancement of knowledge, but also for the education of the people, through lectures and collections, in art and science. It was observed that while Boston had the Lowell Institute, a society of natural history, and an art museum; while Philadelphia had the Franklin Institute, an academy of sciences, and a gallery of fine arts; and while New York had the Metropolitan Museum and the American Museum, yet that Brooklyn had nothing corresponding to these institutions. It was felt that Brooklyn should have an institute of arts and sciences worthy of her wealth, her position, her culture, and her people; that it was her duty to do more than she was then doing for the education and enjoyment of her people, and that some step should be taken looking towards the future growth and needs of the city in matters of art and science.

Accordingly, a form of organization was adopted which contemplated the formation of a large association of members, and a continual increase of the endowment funds and the collections of the Institute. Provision was made for a subdivision of the membership into departments, representing various branches of art and science, each department forming a society by itself and yet enjoying all the privileges of the general association. A general invitation was extended to citizens specially interested in science and art to become members of the Institute. Courses of lectures on science and art were provided. The directors' room of the Institute was enlarged to accommodate the meetings of some of the departments contemplated, and a large lecture-room on the third floor of the Institute building was fitted up at an expense of $2600 for the occupancy of those departments that would make use of apparatus and collections at their meetings.

During the first fifteen months after the reorganization of the Institute a membership of three hundred and fifty persons was recorded. The Brooklyn Microscopical Society joined the Institute in a body, with sixty-four members, and became the Department of Microscopy. The American Astronomical Society, whose members resided mostly in New York and Brooklyn, became the Department of Astronomy, with thirty-two members. The Brooklyn Entomological Society united with the Institute, and became the Entomological Department, with forty-one members. The Linden Camera Club of Brooklyn became the Department of Photography, with twenty-six members. Departments of physics, chemistry, botany, mineralogy, geology, zoölogy, and archæology were successively formed. Each of the above twelve departments began to hold monthly meetings. The permanent funds and property of the Institute were increased $3000. Additions were made to the library, and its circulation increased from 12,000 to 36,000 volumes per year. The lecture courses were fully attended. The classes in drawing were enlarged, and a general citizens' movement to secure a museum of arts and sciences for Brooklyn was inaugurated.

The subsequent growth of the Institute has been remarkable. The old building on Washington Street was burned in 1890, and the work was continued in temporary quarters, chiefly in the building of the Young Men's Christian Association on Fulton Street. During the fourth year of active work after the reorganization 632 new members were recorded. The real estate belonging to the old Brooklyn Institute on Washington Street was sold to the trustees of the New York and Brooklyn Bridge, and the old Institute was formally consolidated with the new Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences. By an act of the Legislature the city was authorized to expend $300,000 in the erection of a Museum of Arts and Sciences on Prospect Hill, on a favorable site bounded by the Eastern Parkway, Washington Avenue, old President Street, and the Prospect Hill reservoir. In the year 1892, 940 new members were added, bringing the total up to 2622; the number of lectures and class exercises open to members and others, by the payment of a moderate fee, was 1397, as against 1134 the previous year; the number of concerts was increased from eight to fifteen; the average daily attendance on all the exercises of the Institute for the eight months of active work was 936, and the total attendance for the year, 190,900; the annual income was increased from $18,934.20 in the previous year to $31,641.58; special courses of lectures were delivered on American history from the time of Columbus to the beginning of this century, and a special course of addresses was given by college presidents on educational problems; Institute extension courses of lectures were given in the eastern section of the city; the school of political science was established, with four classes and ninety-six pupils; the Brooklyn art school was transferred to new and larger quarters in the Ovington Studio Building, and the number of pupils was increased from ninety-four to one hundred and twenty-eight; the department of architecture, acting through its advisory board, devised a scheme of competition for the best plan and design for the proposed Museum of Arts and Sciences, which was accepted by the board of trustees, and adopted by the Mayor and park commissioner, and the competition so arranged resulted in the award to the distinguished New York architects, McKim, Mead & White.

Foremost among those who have brought the Institute to its present influential position in the city have been Gen. John B. Woodward and Prof. Franklin W. Hooper. Professor Hooper, who had been elected curator of the Institute in 1889, became director of the new Institute of Arts and Sciences in 1891.

Mention has already been made of the establishment of Packer Institute and the Polytechnic Institute. The handsome gift of Mrs. Wm. S. Packer resulted in the opening of an academy for the education of young women. Since the time of the opening in 1854, under the presidency of Dr. Alonzo Crittenden, the Packer Collegiate Institute has enjoyed a peculiar prominence in the educational work of the city, and has won a high, if not a foremost, place among academies of the kind in the United States. Dr. Crittenden was succeeded in 1883 by Dr. Truman G. Backus, who had filled the professorship of English language and literature at Vassar, and whose brilliant attainments as a scholar and director have given new distinction to the institute.

A commanding position likewise has been gained by the Polytechnic Institute, whose establishment as an academy for young men resulted from the successful movement, aided by the gift of Mrs. Packer, for the establishment of a young women's school. A building on Livingston Street was completed and opened in 1855, Dr. John H. Raymond then being president of the faculty. Dr. Raymond was succeeded by Dr. David Henry Cochran, who had for ten years been principal of the State Normal School at Albany. Under a new charter, secured in 1890, the Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute received "all the rights, powers, and dignities given by the law and the ordinances of the regents[46] to a college, including membership in the University of the State of New York." Dr. Henry Sanger Snow, an alumnus and a trustee of the institute, took a leading part in the negotiations which resulted in the significant change. The new building adjoining the old was first occupied in September, 1891.

The Adelphi Academy began its life in 1869 as a private school for both sexes. In 1886 Charles Pratt, then president of the board of trustees, made gifts to the Institute, by means of which it secured a new building that was opened in 1888. The since extended buildings now occupy a large part of the block bounded by Lafayette Avenue, St. James Place, Clifton Place, and Grand Avenue. The preparatory, academic, and collegiate departments are supplemented by a kindergarten and a physical-training school. Art education has always occupied an important place in the Adelphi Academy. Many well-known artists have graduated from the art school superintended by Prof. J. B. Whittaker. The principals of the Adelphi since its establishment have been John Lockwood, Homer B. Sprague, Stephen G. Taylor, Albert C. Perkins, John S. Crombie, and Charles H. Levermore.

It is to Charles Pratt, who took so important a part in bringing Adelphi Academy to its present position, that Brooklyn is indebted for the school which, more than any other educational institution within its borders, is distinctively original and of a national fame. Pratt Institute is frequently compared with Cooper Institute in New York. The comparison between the wise beneficence of Cooper and that of Pratt is, indeed, interestingly close; but the likeness between the two great schools is less perfect. Pratt Institute's remarkable characteristics are the result of a wise idea logically worked out. The buildings on Ryerson Street and Grand Avenue contain a unique combination of departments under a form of management that has proved to be eminently practical and progressive. Its educational plan illustrates manual and industrial training, as well as education in high-school and artistic branches. The methods of teaching domestic art, as well as political, economic, and natural science, have excited the admiration of students of education throughout the country. The large free library is one of many features of the institution.

The kindergarten idea in Brooklyn has had its leading exponent in Froebel Academy on Tompkins Square. Among other private educational institutions are St. John's College, the most prominent of the Roman Catholic schools, situated on Lewis Avenue, between Willoughby Avenue and Hart Street; St. Francis College, Bedford Academy, St. Joseph's Institute, Brooklyn Heights Seminary, Long Island Business College, Brooklyn Latin School, Bryant & Stratton's Business College, Miss Rounds's School for Girls, Kissick's Business College, and Browne's Business College.