In the county towns the churches are numbered as follows: Baptist, 1; Hebrew, 1; Lutheran, 5; Methodist Episcopal, 9; Protestant Episcopal, 8; Methodist Protestant, 1; Reformed, 8; Roman Catholic, 12. In 1893 there were ten so-called Chinese Sunday-schools in Brooklyn, most of them connected with Protestant churches, and said to enroll 200 members.[49]
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 Extension 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 Foundation, Congregational Church Extension Society, 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 Auxiliary, 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 significant 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 children 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 incompetent. An important position is occupied by the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor. The Brooklyn Bureau of Charities, with central offices on Schermerhorn Street, has "the general purpose of promoting the welfare of the poor, the suffering, and the friendless in the city of Brooklyn. The specific objects and methods include: The promotion of cordial coöperation between benevolent societies, churches, and individuals; the maintenance of a body of friendly visitors to the poor; the encouragement of thrift, self-dependence, and industry; the provision of temporary employment and industrial instruction."
The Society of St. Vincent de Paul undertakes 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 composed 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 established in Grand Army quarters at the City Hall. In recent years the number of free dispensaries throughout the city has greatly increased.
The Brooklyn Hospital, incorporated in 1845, received valuable aid from Augustus Graham, the founder of the Brooklyn Institute. The present hospital at Raymond Street and De Kalb Avenue has been in operation since 1852. St. Catherine's Hospital 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 Hospital in 1889; the Brooklyn Homœopathic 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 Incurables 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 Society, the Industrial School Association, with six branches, the Nursery and Infants' Hospital, 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 Sheltering 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 peculiarity 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 certain 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 outstretched wings holds up a 'bay,' and a carved 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 architectural style. Architecturally, a most elaborate club-house is the Germania on Schermerhorn Street. Its style is a rich but modified Florentine. The material is pale brown brick. A feature of it is the great arched doorway. The Bush wick Democratic club-house on Bushwick Avenue is, architecturally, on the same lines, a reduced version in stone and terra cotta. The club has but recently taken possession of this new house. Out in Flatbush, on the avenue, is the Midwood, an old colonial manse, unaltered, with wide-spreading grounds, 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 buildings 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."[50]
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 Philharmonic 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 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 subscribers, 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 circulars, 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.[51] A public meeting followed, a popular stock company was formed, and the Academy was incorporated in 1859. Land in Montague Street was bought for $41,000. The total expenditure reached $200,000. The Academy became and has remained the city's leading opera house, and largest place of public meeting. Most of the greatest musical artists, actors, and orators in the country have been heard under its roof.