JMimkipal Club Cl;iss F/'Zf li(»i.k 3~ff??Q PRESENTED HV ^S^y^ BROOKLYN The Home Borough of New York City Its Family Life, Educational Advantages, Civic Virtues, Physical Attractions and Varied Industries PREPARED BY THE MUNICIPAL CLUB OF BROOKLYN ■ - '■"■nTnuTrrrn £-~ mi ** B ■■ B l» CHAPTERS Introduction Herbert F. Gunnison A History of Brooklyn J. Herbert Lo> .. ' | V M-y siJM Inscription on Tablet in Prospect Park : Line of Defense \i G. 2~, 1776 Battle of Long Island 175 Feet South Site of Valley Grove House 150 Feet North 15 View in Prospect Park from the site of the breastworks in the bat- TLE of Long Island, Aug. 27, 1776. The United States census was Brooklyn by decades are as follows: In 1790 1,603 1800 2,378 Walloons and French Huguenots; but it was slow. Kings Countv came into existence with the con- vening of the first colonial legisla- ture in 16S3; but as late as 1738, the population of the shore villages was reckoned at only 574 whites and 158 slaves, while that of the entire County had grown by the year 1786 to only 3,986. Mean- while the Revolutionary War had swept the colonies and Brooklvn had felt the full force of it. Wash- ington and the soldiers on Brooklyn Heights escaped after the Battle of Long Island, but the Brooklvn of that period has ever since been associated with the darkness of pa- triotic despair, not alone because of this defeat, but even more be- cause the British kept at anchor in the waters of the city the unspeak- able prison ships, the bodies of the sufferers in which have since been buried with military honors in Fort Greene Park and will not be for- gotten, so long as the present beautiful monument to them stands, inaugurated in 1790. Its returns for In 1810 4,402 1820 7,175 1830 15,394 By this time, there was a growing demand for incorporation as a city, which was bitterly opposed bv "capital, speculation and monopoly," which "joined hands in a most formidable league against the aspirations and endeavors of Brooklyn." Rents in New York were 3 5^ higher than in any- other city of the United States. If merchants and their clerks found Brooklyn attractive — and they would in a city rather more than in a village, owing to its larger advantages — property interests in Upper Manhattan would suffer. Then, too, the New York Corporation, by clever manipulation of the charters of 1708 and 1732, had laid hold of the land on the Brooklyn shore between high and low water, and Brooklyn as a municipality would ^/erort be apt to dispute this claim. Finally, the Fulton Ferry, owned and leased by the Corporation, was making money for it and the founding of a rival corporation was looked at askance. Brooklyn could count more than 15,000 inhabitants and New York 150,000, and there was a large amount of marketing between the two places; yet for nine- teen years the Council had granted no new con- cession for a ferry, on the alleged ground of an agreement with the les- sees of the ferry in 1811, that they should have ex- clusive rights for twenty- five years for ferriage south of Catherine Street. The large property own- ers in New York natur- ally exerted their influ- ence with the Council to hold to this agreement, so that the population would move northward instead of to Brooklvn. But this antagonized the workmen of New York and gave a strong im- petus to the founding of the Equal Rights Party there. On one day in October of 1S34, the foot passengers who crossed the Fulton Ferry num- bered S.521. Thus the force of public opinion on both sides of the river won for Brooklyn her coveted incorporation as a city in 1S34, and on April 25th, of that year, George Hall became its first mavor. Yet one objection, illuminating in its imaginative grasp, must not be passed over, namely, — that sometime in the future two million people would be Prison Ship Martyrs' Monument Fort Greene 17 The Ocean Boulevard living in New York, Kings and Richmond Counties, all of whom ought to be incorporated into one city ! Population now began to advance rapidly. The Atlantic Avenue Ferry was founded in 1836, the Hamilton in 1846, the Wall Street in 1853, and others, — all operated, no longer by the New York Corporation, but by the Brooklyn Union Ferry Company. The census returns are interesting from this point on: In 1840 36,233 1850 96,838 1860 266,661 In 1870 396,099 1880 566,663 1890 838,547 1900 1,166,582 This great development since 1SS0 has been due chiefly to the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1883, the absorption into the City of Brooklyn of the towns of Flatbush, Flatlands, Gravesend and New Utrecht in 1S94, and the consolidation of Brooklyn as a Borough of Greater New York, on January 1, 1898, which resulted in a lowering of the Brooklyn tax-rate. And now, with new subways and new bridges and improved transit on this side of the river, the population has risen to 1,700,000. Nothing that the geographical center of the greater city is actually near the site of the Dutch Reformed Church in Flatbush, is it too rose-colored a dream that the future voyager sailing up our majestic bay may view upon the Heights of Brooklyn, made beautiful and dignified with esplanade and park and square, the series of splendid public buildings which will designate Brooklyn as the seat of government of the City of Greater New York! 18 THE BROOKLYN SPIRIT By Robert H. Roy HERE is a distinctive and distinctly wholesome spirit about the life of Brooklyn. Though hard to define, it is easilv discernible. It can be traced, and in a measure at least attributed, to the sturdy qualities of its Dutch settlers and to those influences which have made Brooklyn renowned as the City of Churches. It is reflected in its salutory home life, in its excellent system of public instruction, in the support its citizens uniformly give to all movements of civic betterment and moral uplift, in the cleanliness of its social conditions, and in the independence of its voters in political affairs. Its population is of that substantial, home-loving and thrifty class, which is the vital element of a free community. Child life is esteemed and enjoved and morally protected. Its public education system was used as a model after which the public school system of the Greater City of New York was patterned. In addi- tion to her public school system, Brooklyn supports a unique and superb educational force in the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, which furnishes opportunities for scientific, artistic and musical learning, which no other city affords. The demand for better streets, more schools, increased transit facilities and efficient law enforcement, finds expression and produces impression through at least one hundred organizations or Boards of Trade, whose members keep in close touch with the problems of their immediate vicinity and follow up public expenditures with a view to their proper and ef- fective use. The Shore Road In addition to such organizations the public spirit of our people sup- ports in whole or in part about two hundred and fifty charitable move- ments through which the poor, the sick, the halt and the blind of all ages, races and religions are ministered unto and relieved. A superb example of Brooklyn spirit was shown in the campaign re- centlv conducted by the Young Women's Christian Association for funds to erect two large boarding homes for working girls, one to be established in the Eastern District and the other in connection with the Central Branch of that organization. Within nine days $505,021.27 was raised from S,006 subscribers. The individual subscriptions ranged from five cents to $35,000. When the old Academy of Music on Montague Street was burned, November 30, 1903, Brooklyn was deprived of one of her important build- ings. A building, in- deed, which constituted the principal center of art, musical and edu- cational life. The pri- vate corporation which owned it concluded it would not rebuild, but would use the proper- ty for business pur- poses. It became neces- sary to apply to the citizens of Brooklyn for subscriptions to the stock of a new corpo- ration, with which to Texxis Court, Flatbush , ... , . ~, build elsewhere. I he funds were raised, about 1,400 citizens subscribed and the new Academy, incomparably handsomer than the old, was built at a cost of $1,300,000. Brooklyn is nominally a Democratic city, yet its vote has frequently been cast for Republican candidates for all kinds of offices. Its last two mayors before consolidation with the greater city were Republicans. One year its vote is carried in favor of one party and the next year in favor of the opposite party. Probably in no other city in America are there so many men whose vote is uncontrolled by hide-bound partisan affiliations. No political organization will ever acquire a lasting hold upon the govern- ment of Brooklyn and Kings County, unless its leaders conduct themselves with wisdom and honor for a longer time than has been the habit with politicians here and elsewhere in the past. The independence of the voters of Brooklyn is due to the fact that the citizens are patriotic before they are partisan and love their homes above any sense of loyalty that they have to a mere political organization. HOME I II I WD I is INFLUENCE By William McAndrew 'HE funny man who pictures the Brooklynite pushing a baby carriage is a Brooklynite himself and glories in it. Babies mean home, family, growing things, real life. In Manhattan, the man who lives next door is the man who lives next door; that's all. In Brooklyn he is Harry Thompson. He has a name, a family, a dog known as Towser and a cat called Tabby. When the sage of Flatbush announced that half the pleasure of life is folks he touched the universal chord. Brooklyn prides itself on being countryfied because that means: to have neighbors, to know them, to enjoy sitting upon their porch and to forswear the foolish fancy of the conven- tional city man who lets himself become a hermit among millions of people. Community life makes for character. The friendly man is the honest one. The more people you know well the more good peo- ple you know. For vice and dis- honesty ever shun the light. A city of neighborly feeling is always a clean community. Your chil- dren know your neighbor's chil- dren. Into your family group comes the variety secured bv visits of your neighbors' boys and girls. Brooklyn keeps the fine old- fashioned institution called the family circle. Brooklynites still find a pleasure staying at home as many evenings as their fathers used to do. All the gilt and tinsel of a metropolis looks cheap to the head of a family who knows the homely style of living possible in a city that has jealously guarded the traditions found to be worth while. It is no accident that the city of churches, the city of good schools, is everywhere denominated the city of good fellowship, the city of homes. Its amusements are the healthy co-operation of neigh- bors together. It, alone of all the cities in the world, perpetuates its Children's day with tens of thousands marching in the streets to the music of the band. Its celebration of the national holidays in neighborly 21 Grace Reformed Church co-operation; its local organizations for the "Block Beautiful"; its notable family excursions to the uttermost parts of the earth, its neighborhood clubs of literature, art, science and dramatics testify to the persistent and healthy life of the old home spirit which its Dutch pioneers implanted on the salubrious heights of the island. Nature predicated for the Brooklynite freedom from the artificial hunger for amusement characteristic of the life across the river. Brooklyn homes are not piled one upon the other eighteen stories high. There is all out- doors at hand: the open spaces of the east, the broad expanse of ocean at the south, and always time to come back to the family dinner in the evening without necessity of joining in the stifling crush of cafe or of restaurant. With all the resources of the largest city at command, with all the privileges of congenial companionship instantly available, Brooklyn wheels her babv-cabs, educates her boys and girls, rears her families and celebrates her golden weddings without apology, without the tremor of envy or the snivel of regret. i First Presbyterian Church 22 THE PERSONALITY OF BROOKLYN Charles C. Tompkins .HEX what is called the personality of Brooklyn is analyzed it seems to consist of thrift, love of home, civic conscience, and capacity for enthusiasm. The first two elements be- longed to both the Dutch and the English stock of old Kings County. The third was certainly more rigid with the speakers of English. The fourth, so far as enthusiasms for abstractions are concerned was essentially Yankee. In the Dutch there was a fondness for house comfort in the love of home, which did not actuate the New Englander. Fused in the progress of the years, where the Dutch and the Yankees met as they did here on almost equal terms and in almost equal numbers; these elements became the strength of a really great city, the city of Henry Ward Beecher and Richard S. Storrs, and Charles H. Hall, and Theodore L. Cuvler, and Sylvester Malone, all preachers who were also teachers of the virtue of good citizenship; the city which made the pioneer fight for home rule, for the crushing of corrupt municipal rings, for primary reform; for schools that were practical and thorough. The habit of discussing public questions was common to the people of the Hill, the Heights, Bay Ridge, Bushwick, the Eastern District. Brooklyn Hospital 23 ' XJ ^ij ^iJ Arlington Avenue Presbyterian Church Even the party ward association, whether republican or democratic, was a debating society ostensibly and often really used to advance the interests of the city, state and nation. Parties were evenly balanced, and bad nominations got their quick punishment. The bench and bar had many distinguished lights. Justice was even handed. After that came consolidation. Six Brooklyn men, Gen. Tracy, Seth Low, William C. De Witt, Silas B. Dutcher, Stewart L. Woodford, and Frederick W. Wurster, really made the greater city's charter, and made it largelv on the lines of the charter of old Brooklyn. At no time has the controller of the city been a resident of any borough but Brooklyn. Both Mayor and Controller are now Brooklynites, and Brooklyn with Queens has nine votes out of sixteen in the Board of Estimate. William H. Max- well, Brooklyn's Superintendent of Public Instruction, took over the rest of the city's schools, and his power is as yet dominant. Within a year the city's agreement has handed over to the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company for the future the very cream of passenger transportation in Manhattan. The force of Brooklyn has vindicated itself in all the Greater City develop- That force shows no weakening. It dominates because it deserves to dominate. We may look with certainty for dock building, continuous water front improvement, increased industrial activities, vast suburban growth; as well as new subways, new tunnels, new bridges, anil tbe working out of a plan for Brooklyn development of which everybody can be proud. Our retail stores offer conditions even more favorable to the shopper than those of Manhattan, already. Our Brooklyn Institute flourishes like a green bay tree. Our non-public educational institutions, Packer, Berkeley, St. Johns, Adelphi, Polytechnic, Pratt Institute and Brooklyn College, have no superiors anywhere. Our theatres offer the best that dramatic art can furnish in high class entertainment. Our new Academy of Music is just that in fact as well as in name, and has proved that grand opera can be made successful here. Our hotels yield place to no others in cuisine and conveni- ence. Our park and parkway system is a delight to the rambler, the driver, the automobile enthusiast. One can drive for twenty miles without passing upon a thoroughfare not under park development control, and never fail to have before him a scene of natural beauty. And when he pays the debt of nature we all must pay, he is laid away either in Greenwood, Evergreen, Cypress Hills, Holy Cross or other Cities Beautiful of the Dead. To all of these attractions Brooklyn welcomes the newcomer, in a hearty Brooklyn way, and makes him feel at home in twenty-four hours. He too, may become an adopted heir to the Brooklyn Spirit. He has only to settle here and do his share toward increasing the momentum of civic energy. His family will find friends, real friends in their own neighborhood, their own church, their own Sunday School. Parkway ix Bay Ridge VOICE OF PUBLIC OPINION By Edward M. Bassett N ONE of John Fiske's historical studies, "The Beginnings of New England," he traces the town meeting back to the forests of Germany. With equal accuracy he might have traced the progress of the town meeting spirit forward to Brooklyn. For three generations people imbued with the town meeting spirit have been coming here. In the earlier days they were largely of New England ancestry, attracted to New York by its increasing business opportunities and then attracted to Brooklyn by the reasonable cost of living. They were willing to endure discomforts of travel in order to have their families live in one-family houses among bright and wholesome surroundings where children would prosper and where the modest environment would allow the head of the family to put by somewhat for old age or a rainy day. It was the habit of these people and of the earlier Dutch settlers to keep alive a keen public opinion re- garding local affairs and both to express and demand that others express their reasons for their beliefs. In later years, newcomers of all nationalities were welcomed to Brooklyn and soon caught the Brooklyn spirit. Nowhere else did the people turn out in such numbers to listen to public lectures in the days before ^J) St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Flatbush the war. The Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, which some say is the best organization of the sort in the world, was the direct offspring of the early educational habit. The pulpits and lecture platforms of Brooklyn were a preparation for the abolition of slavery in the United States, and strengthened the arm that saved the nation at its time of crisis. The voice of Brooklyn could never be suppressed. It has been heard from one end of the country to the other in every national emergency. It has been the hope of some political movements and has given the death blow to others. A square moral issue has always been appreciated and backed in Brooklyn a little harder and more quicklv than anywhere else, and no political boss or party has been able to fool Brooklyn long. Here were the origin and highest fruition of taxpayers' organizations. They sprang from the idea that the plain citizen should do more to help government than merely to pay his taxes, and that government would be better if citizens were organized to watch how taxes are expended. The Brooklyn press remarkably exemplifies the Brooklyn spirit. Where there is a strong voice of public opinion, there will in modern times be a strong expression of that opinion in print. The daily newspapers of Brooklyn vary in the size of their organizations, but all of them are unique among the newspapers of the metropolis in that they recognize the existence of an independent and ungagged clientele. Annexations of the county towns and consolidation with the greater city did not affect the entity of Brooklyn or the relation of its press to that entity. Some of the Brooklyn papers stand for an accumulated public opinion to an extent that can hardly be paralleled in any other city, certainly not paralleled in any segment of a great city elsewhere in the world. For three generations Brooklyn has been pre-eminent in the funda- mental elements of municipal civilization — thrift, order, education, children, churches, and individual independence of opinion. The question is whether this can continue. Will these qualities be submerged by the waves of metropolitan growth and of novel ideals? Some think that if maintained they will be equally sound and serviceable for generations to come. The voice of public opinion, expressed in the future as it has been in the past, will make them endure. The Un'ion League Club 28 PEOPLE AND POPULATION OF BROOKLYN By John B. Creightdv noted HE most frequent remark of people visiting Brooklyn for the first time is "I had no idea that Brooklyn is so large a place." Unquestionably the number of persons living in the borough today exceeds 1,700,000. The early settlers of Brooklyn were deeply religious, enterprising and law-abiding. The frequent designation of Brooklyn as the "City of Churches" is no empty title. Brooklyn is still a city- of churches and church-going people. It is also a city of homes. The characteristics of the early days of Brooklyn persist in a remarkable way to the present time in spite of the great influx of peoples from every quarter of the globe. Brooklyn people have a cordiality about them which is instantlv by the new arrival — those who en- ter the church, club or social life of the borough at once feel the spirit of hospitality which is con- spicuously lacking in most Eastern cities. Figures based on the United States census of 1900 give the predominating nationalities in Brooklyn as follows: German 106,654 Italian 37,200 Russian 24,403 Irish S3.400 English 27,599 Polish. 9,172 Austrian S.034 The foreign born races increas- ing most rapidly are the Italian, Jewish and Slavic. It is estimated that the total number of foreign born residents of Brooklyn in 1912 is 571,355. The total number of na- tive born of foreign parents is 663,- 594. We thus find the enormous total of 1,234,949 of foreigners and --*«a* k ^ . , a those born of foreign parents. How forceful is the original Brooklyn character to maintain Abraham Lincoln Statue its individuality and characteristics Prospect Park in the midst of this great immigration? Yet such is the case and Brooklyn today impresses one more as a New England city, with a high percentage of native born, than a community composed of over fifty per cent, of foreigners and children of foreign parents. Owing to our efficient public schools the percentage of illiteracy in 1900 was 4.6 per cent. It is probable that the percentage today is even less. The following statistics from the last Federal census apply to the whole City of New York. The percentages have not been computed by boroughs, but it is probable that the given percentages for the entire city are fairly accurate for the Borough of Brooklyn: Of the total population of New York City in 1910 the native white element, numbering 2,741,504, constituted 57.5 per cent., while the foreign born white element, numbering 1,927,720, constituted 40.4 per cent. In 1900 the native white element constituted a considerably larger proportion of the total population, or 61.4 per cent, as against 36.7 per cent, for the foreign born white. The native white population having both parents native in 1910 numbered 921,130, while those having one or both parents foreign born numbered 1,820,374, or 19.3 and 38.2 per cent., respectively, of the total Pacific Baths — Foot of Pacific Street 30 Norwegian Hospit u. population of the city at that time; the equivalent percentages in 1900 were 21.5 and 39.9 per cent., respectively. From 1900 to 1910 there was an increase in the population of the city as a whole of 3S.7 per cent., but for the foreign born white element there was an increase of 52.9 per cent., and for the negro element of 51.2 per cent. The native white element of native parentage increased during the decade 24.9 per cent., while the native white element of foreign parentage increased 32.7 per cent. The foreign born white element in 1910 constituted very nearly one- half of the total population of Manhattan borough, a little more than one- third of the total population of The Bronx and Brooklyn boroughs, respec- tivelv, and between 25 and 30 per cent, of the total population of Queens and Richmond boroughs, respectively. Taking Brooklyn as a separate city it would rank third in the United States, the order being for the first five: New York, Chicago, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, St. Louis. Among the largest cities of the world, Brooklyn ranks ninth. Brooklyn todav equals the combined population of San Francisco, Cin- cinnati, New Orleans, Washington, D. C. and Minneapolis. The density of population in Brooklyn is 40.7 to the acre, as com- pared to IIS in the Borough of Manhattan; Brooklyn has a total acreage of 40,071 as compared with 12,S02 for the Borough of Manhattan. It will thus be seen that in area Brooklyn is more than three times the size of Manhattan. Cheap rapid transit is all that is required to distribute the congested population of Manhattan to the open spaces of Brooklyn. The greatest density of population in Brooklyn is found in the 21st Assembly District, where it amounts to 260 per acre. In Manhattan the most densely populated district is the 8th, where we find 1,103 people to the acre, or over 400 per cent, more congested than any part of Brooklyn. The present population of Brooklyn exceeds the total of any of the following states: Arkansas, Connecticut, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Nebraska, South Carolina, Wash- ington, West Virginia, and twenty-one others. Of the foreign born colonies in Brooklyn the Brownsville and Siegel Street section, comprising a population of 200, QUO, entirely Jewish, are the most prominent. The Italian colonies in 1912 number about 150,000, or approximatelv the size of Venice or Bologna. The Italians from Northern Italv are a thrifty people who are investors in real estate. The same may be said of the Jewish citizens. The thoroughly American Brooklynite of the early days finds his city- invaded by manv from the old countries of continental Europe. He main- tains the spirit of the "City of Churches," and at the same time, through the schools, through the social settlements, and the numerous other chari- table and educational agencies, is making over the foreigner into the Ameri- can of tomorrow, making him and his wife and his children to feel towards the borough as the old Brooklvnites feel and to refer to it in the same affectionate wav that they refer to it, when they say "Dear Old Brooklyn." Phot, ?.2 Prospei i Park in Winter WHERE THE PEOPLE LIVE By Frank H. Ti ler 'HE Borough of Brooklyn contains seventy-seven square miles, or 49,680 acres, lias 1,031 miles of highways and 850 miles of sewers. Aside from our three bridges — the Brooklyn Bridge, the Williamsburg Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge — with practically no additional transit facilities during the past ten years, our population lias increased 467,769. For many years Brooklyn has been known as a favored residential place for all classes of people and of every degree. This is because of the very many attractive features, the beautiful rolling country, the attrac- tive drainage and the miles of water front on river, bay and ocean; and the atmosphere of home prevails everywhere. There is no city in the world that contains such a varied size and style of house with so many comforts and luxuries within the range of everyone. In the Heights section, the older part of Brooklyn, there still remain many of the larger and commodious four-story brick and stone private dwellings, many of which have been practically rebuilt and modernized and because of their substantial con- struction freely admit of such changes. In this locality, because of its close proximity to Manhattan, some changes have taken place and there are several very large hotels, numerous apartment hotels and bachelor apart- ments equal in every detail to any of the more famous hotels in Manhattan Avenue H — Fiske Terrace and with the same luxurious apartments, and at about one-half the cost. Here are the well-known Brooklyn Club, the daily meeting place of our judges and leading lawyers; the Hamilton Club, where an atmosphere of quiet and elegance always obtains, and the Crescent Club, a deservedly popular club among the younger men. In the so-called downtown section, everything is rapidly changing to a business condition and will continue a movement likely to become stronger each day. This section is largely populated by the many thousand people identified with our large department stores, which have marvelously developed in recent years, having numerous Manhattanites for their patrons. The Hill section has more fully retained its purely residential char- acter than many other localities, but here and there we find a modern apartment building. However, this section is likely to remain purely a residential one. It is within easy walking distance of the subway stations and in the midst of this locality is the old historical Fort Greene Park. Rentals range from $40.00 to $150.00 a month, according to the size and character of the house. With the opening of our Williamsburg Bridge came the most radical change in old Williamsburg, or as it is generally known, the Eastern Dis- trict. The character of the locality has very materially changed from a private residential section to a largely populated section. The Bedford Corners, the Old Clove Road and the Cripple Bush Road, now known as the Bedford and St. Marks sections, have long since lost their identity and no other locality has been so adequately improved to meet the advanced ideas of living. Small houses of brick and stone, con- taining from seven to ten rooms, have been built in large numbers, which 34 East 19TH Street — Fiske Terrace range in rental from $35.00 to $50.00 a month, and as well, three-story and basement brick and stone houses, which command from $45.00 to $75.00 a month. The apartment houses are many, with suites of from five to seven rooms, the rentals of which are from $18.00 to $22.00, while the more modern buildings containing steam heat, hot water supply and open plumb- ing, run from $25.00 to $45.00; and, where more attractive features are provided — parquet floors, electric light, telephone and hall boy service — from $45.00 to $100.00 a month. In the heart of the St. Marks section are located many beautiful man- sions, products of the master hand of the architect, the artist and the modern mechanic. These beautiful homes are seldom offered for sale. They are cherished as homes and will probably pass from one generation to another, fine demonstrations of the great confidence our wealthy men have in the stability- of Brooklyn. The Parkway Heights section first came into prominence by the estab- lishment of the now famous "Spotless Town," built up of detached and semi-detached homes where heat and hot water supply is provided for each house from a central station. Here also are to be found the most advanced tvpe of two-family house — the Duplex — with every comfort and luxury and each part absolutely independent of the other, and these apart- ments rent from $50.00 to $75.00, and will prove a permanent investment. The now almost world known Prospect Park South section is a beauty spot without a peer in the suburbs of any great city. It is a section where values have not only been maintained, but have very materially enhanced, and where rented houses are exceptions. Beautiful, broad, parkwayed streets, where the landscape artist has been given full sway, characterize it, 35 A Brooklyn Apartment House 36 and the many variegated shrubs and Royal Wilton lawns make these streets compare most favorably with millionaires' gardens. Here may be seen tine expressions of the ideas of the modern architect in the pure Colonial, the Gothic, the old Dutch ami the Renaissance. All of this delightful section lies south of Prospect Park and the Parade Grounds, the free use of the latter being given to the public for football, baseball, cricket and tennis. The famous Flatbush section has many fine residential centers, including Fiske Terrace, Ditmas Park, Midwood, South Midwood and Vanderveer Park. Bordering on the westerly side of Prospect Park is the very attractive residential section known as the Park Slope, and here are many detached mansions and very high grade dwellings with several of the most modern type of apartment houses. Among these dwellings, here and there, you mav rind a few of them rented from $75.00 to $100.00 a month, while apart- ments rent from $40.00 to $100.00 a month. To the south of the Park Slope is the large and growing section of South Brooklyn, extending to Fort Hamilton and including Bay Ridge, Bath Beach, Borough Park and Bensonhurst. All of the above sections of Brooklvn are connected by a series of macadamized or asphalt avenues and boulevards. Our Shore Road, with greater possibilities than Riverside Drive in Manhattan; our Ocean Boule- vard, a stretch of five miles of beautiful road with many rows of magnificent shade trees and the terminus, the beautiful and always attractive, broad Atlantic Ocean, and our Eastern Parkway, a somewhat similar boulevard, complete a system of which they are a part with all the roads that lead out to suburban districts. Albemarle Road — Prospect Park South 37 THE SOCIAL LIFE Almet F. Latson EFORE the days of consolidation Brooklyn was known far * and wide as the City of Homes and the designation is as apt now as it was then, although borough must be substituted for the more dignified and important title of earlier years. And it is significant of life in this quarter of the Greater New York that the home spirit has extended beyond the limits of the family circle and found expression in a bewildering variety of organizations of men and women representative of every station and calling. There are exclusive clubs and groups of limited membership, and there are societies so democratic in their tendencies that the roster knows no limit, but the distinctive note in each of these extremes, as well as in the numberless organizations between, is the spirit of neighborly interest, the helpful, stimu- lating atmosphere that has been passed on from the home circle. One of the features of the social life of this great borough is the neigh- borhood club, which conforms exactly to its name. The members live on the same block, or within a radius of three or four blocks, and they share in practically every interest or activity that appeals to the individual residents. While this delightful neighborly spirit is most in evidence in the suburban sections it is by no means confined to them and even in the oldest residential quarters such clubs abound. The sewing bee flourishes as buoyantly in Brooklyn as it does in any old New England or Southern town and the neighborhood music and card clubs are countless. Church affiliations have 38 Flatbush Public Lidrarv resulted in the formation of some of the most influential and important social organizations of Brooklyn and the same is true with reference to various callings, teachers, lawyers, engineers, physicians and ministers being con- spicuous examples. At the head of the list are the great social clubs, that have years of life behind them and which compare in their houses, comforts, luxuries and ap- pointments with any eleswhere. There is the Brooklyn, oldest of all, the Hamilton, and closely following is the Crescent, with its fancy for healthful outdoor sports, the Union League, the Montauk, the Hanover, University, and Lincoln. These are the clubs that have served as the models for those that have come after, universal in their character in that they draw their memberships not from neighborhoods but from the entire borough. The fraternal life is particularly strong, big national organizations being represented and many of them maintaining spacious club houses or headquarters. The home spirit has found expression in the somewhat limited development of the civic beauty idea in relation to this borough, and in the congested sections no less than in the exclusive residential localities we have had for years spots of beauty that have truly deserved the name "Block Beautiful." The neighborly rivalry was conducted in perfect friendliness and the beautiful areas have become social centers of distinction. Another and a very effective mani- festation of the neighborhood feeling in the social life here is the celebration of national holidays, particularly the Fourth of July, with special programmes and ap- propriate exercises in different localities. The neighbors band together and subscribe to a common fund and there is a very satisfactory observance of the occasion with illuminations, music, speechmaking and fire- works as the essentials of the programme. The young people's organizations con- stitute a distinctive group and their num- ber and scope are so extensive that every youthful inclination and fancy receives recognition. Then there are the family clubs to which father and mother, sister and brother, son and daughter, uncle and aunt, all offer allegiance and from which they derive an immense amount of pleasure and profit. To sum up, there is a homey quality about every phase of social activity in Brooklyn that is very pleasing and this characteristic is looked upon as a note of distinction bv everv true and loyal Brooklvnite. Statue of George Washington Williamsburg Bridge Plaza 39 ART AND LITERATURE Frank P. Hill jN the higher ranges of art and literature Brooklyn has held a famous place, and, although these flourished to a greater extent before consolidation than they now do, it is more than probable that, when subways and tunnels bring Man- hattan more closely to Brooklyn than they now do, a great number of writers and painters and representatives of other branches of art, will find their way to homes and studios in Brooklvn. Still green is the memory of such names in literature as Henry Ward Beecher, Richard Salter Storrs, John Chadwick, as eminent in letters as in divinity. There was also William Hamilton Gibson, illustrator and maga- zine writer. Among painters for years living in Brooklyn were Blashfield, Inness and Brown, while still maintaining their homes here are Whittaker, Symons, Eggleston, Wadsworth, Guy and Blumenstein, while Paul Dougherty, the marine painter, should yet be reckoned as a Brooklynite. Among the women who have been, or now are, making Brooklvn famous are Mrs. Henry Ward Beecher, Fanny Crosby, the hymn writer, Mrs. S. B. Halliday, Mrs. Newell Dwight Hillis, Mrs. Lyman Abbott, Mrs. Alice Morse Earle, Mrs. Cornelia K. Hood, law lee turer for the Brooklyn Institute for 19 years, and Edna Dean Proctor, poetess. The Borough of Brooklyn is unusually rich in public buildings. The silent influence of these institutions is far-reaching and the facilities which they afford are greatly ap- preciated by the community. A consolidation of such independent libra- ries as the Brooklyn Library on Montague Street, the Library of the Union for Christian Work, and those in Bay Ridge, Fort Hamilton and New Utrecht into one system has been effected and the corporation now known as the Brooklyn Public Library controls many branch libraries which are scattered throughout the borough. The sites for these branches have been chosen wisely so that the greatest number of readers may be accommodated with the least effort in travel. The Brooklyn Public Library contains nearly three-quarters of a million volumes and loans over four million books for home reading each year. Besides the branches of the Public Library the Pratt Institute Free Library is open to the public for reference and the circulation of books, and the libraries of the Long Island Historical Society, the Kings County Medical Society, the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, and the Chil- Neighborhoud Guild 41 u 42 dren's Museum Library and the Brooklyn Law Library are all accessible to readers under proper restrictions. Enclosed in the many departments of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences are advantages that invite attendance of people of education, taste and accomplishment. Associate members of the Institute may select from the realms of agriculture, architecture, astronomy, botany, chemistry, domestic science, electricity, engineering, entomology, ethnology, fine arts, geography, geology, law, mathematics, microscopy, mineralogy, music, painting, pedagogy, philately, philology, philosophy, physics, political science, psychology, sociol- ogy and zoology. In the courses of lectures on arts and sciences lectures are given by eminent experts in the various lines and in that way the public gets the condensed knowledge which is usually acquired only after years of learning and experience. There are concerts and dramatic readings. To illustrate many of the departments visually there are collections at the Institute on the Eastern Parkway at Washington avenue in the magnificent building, which, when completed, will cover an area of 560 square feet, while it is to have four interior courts. One of the most important features of the Institute is the choice collection of paintings, sculptures and casts of statuary after the noblest periods of art, ancient glasses, Egyptian antiquities, Royal Copenhagen porcelains, Chinese cloisonnes, and European china, be- sides illustrations in natural history, etc. Pratt Institute and the private schools, high schools and colleges offer fine facilities to art students. Photo by F. H. Erans. Scene in Prospect Park ALTRUISTIC ENDEAVORS By Louis H. Pink • HE SETTLEMENT of today is an outpost of democracy. It gets its character and its strength from the people. It seeks to develop neighborhood spirit — sympathy and com- munity of interest, and is the home of the local civic organizations, the place for discussion of neighborhood problems, a center of wholesome recreation for the young. Its constant effort is the wider diffusion of tolerance, of culture. Stanton Coit, an American college graduate who had resided at Toynbee Hall, London, Park Commissioner Charles B. Stover, and other ardent spirits, became residents of a tenement on Forsyth Street. From this humble beginning grew the University Settlement which was organized in 1887 under the name of the Neighborhood Guild. Three years later the first Brooklyn Settlement Society — the Brooklyn Guild Association — was organized. Though non-sectarian, it was an out- growth of the social work of the Second Unitarian Church. Its aim was to establish club rooms which should form common meeting places for all the social classes. In 1896, through the efforts of this Association, Maxwell House was erected by Henry W. Maxwell, in honor of his brother, Eugene L. Max- well. In 1909 this Settlement was merged into the United Neighborhood Guild in Nassau Street and is now a center for work among the Italians. Brooklyn Industrial School, 217 Sterling Place 44 The Convent of Mercy, ijth Avenue and 64TH Street The Asacog Neighborhood Association was founded in 1S96 by a group of young women prominent on the Heights. The Circle of Kings Daughters, of which Asacog was the outgrowth, had its origin in 1883, before Coit came to America. The work started in a lunch club for factory girls and broadened and strengthened until the usual Settlement activities were in- cluded. The "Astral" or Greenpoint Settlement was organized by the Neighbor- ship Association of Pratt Institute. It is located in the model tenements erected by the Pratts in Greenpoint. Most of the club and class work is carried on by students of the Institute. "Astral" was instrumental in securing the first public playground in Brooklyn. Friendly House has done intensive educational work among a com- paratively small group of people. Mr. William H. Childs has generouslv supported the work and made possible the employment of leaders and teachers of first ability. The Settlement has recently been placed under the control of the Church of the Pilgrims. A more democratic policy has been adopted and a fine new building will shortly be erected. The Italian Settlement was established a decade ago by William E. Davenport, who has always been the heart and soul of its work. Mr. Davenport is the link between the Calabrian, the Sicilian, and the institu- tions of America. Personal service to individuals has been his aim. "Little 45 Italy" is in the heart of the South Brooklyn Italian colony. The Settlement has fostered the making of native Italian hand embroidery. The building is old, small and unfit for a neighborhood center. Dr. Jane E. Robbins, who started the first woman's Settlement in America, and whose work is known throughout the country is the present headworker. St. Vincent's Home, Boerum Place and State Street The School Settlement in Williamsburg was organized by graduates of the Brooklyn high schools and receives much of its support from Packer, Berkeley, Adelphi and other institutions of learning. Willoughby House receives much of its support from the churches with which it is closely affiliated. It is undenominational and was formerly under the control of the Young Women's Christian Association. The build- 46 ing is modern and in excellent taste. It was erected through the generosity of W. G. Low. Lincoln Settlement is the only Settlement in Brooklyn for colored people. It maintains a kindergarten, a day nursery and provides a social center for the people of the neighborhood. The Brooklyn Music School Settlement is an outgrowth of the Music School Settlement in New York. It was established a year ago in the building of the United Neighborhood Guild, but has outgrown its quarters and is now temporarily located on Vanderbilt Avenue. Instruction in piano, violin and voice culture is maintained. Baptist Home — Greene Avenue, Cor. Throop The United Neighborhood Guild is a combination of the old Italian Settlement, Maxwell House and Asacog House. These three Settlements occupied a common neighborhood and united in order that a more effective work might be carried on. A new building, ideally planned for a neighbor- hood center, was erected in the fall of 1910. The Guild is democraticallv administered by a council of club and neighborhood representatives. Its aim is to be a strong civic center — "A Neighborhood Town Hall." St. Helen's is the only Catholic Settlement in Brooklyn. It was founded by the late Monsigneur W. J. White, who contributed so much to social progress in this Borough. This work is largely among Italians. 47 V^ ^v— -* The Hebrew Educational Society in Brownsville is not officially listed as a Settlement, but its activities are similar to those of other neighborhood centers. The Society was incorporated in 1S99 and the present building at Pitkin Avenue and Watkins Street secured. The Society has in the past devoted its efforts largely to the promotion of education among the immi- grant population. Social center work is now being emphasized rather than the educational activities which were originally considered most important. St. Phoebe's Mission, which adjoins the grounds of the Brooklyn Hospital, makes a specialty of hospital extension work. There are also several strong social centers conducted by churches, notably the Trinity Club and Trinity Guild, of the Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, and the Willow Place Chapel which is affiliated with the Unitarian Church. The Settlements have a bond of Union in the Brooklyn Neighborhoods Association which is made up of representatives from all the centers and is active in promoting the socializing of the public schools, park and play- ground development, and civic betterment. 48 St. Luke's Church, Clinton Avenue w < CHURCHES AND CHARITIES Rev. L. Ward Brigham, D.D. BROOKLYN may well be called a "Community of Churches." Escaping from the great economic maelstrom of New York City, the residents of Brooklyn, from the first, found satisfac- tion in attending to their duties regarding the spiritual and religious life of man. To speak briefly of the history, life and present work of the 400 churches in our borough is a task, architecture of the church buildings was not especially commanding, but in recent years this matter has been deemed of more importance, so that in every section impressive and attractive buildings are being erected. Not only has devotion thus been aided but the diverse phases of modern religious life and activity have had adequate means provided for their expression. From the early days the leaders of the churches have been strong men of pronounced ideas, who have in- spired the moral and civic life of the people. Here are the churches of Beecher, Storrs, Bethune, Behrens, Talmage, Cuyler, Little- john and Loughlin. These and many others, together with their successors, have mightily moved American life, and have sounded the call for a vigorous rectitude and a true devotion. While religion is one, and the ministering spirit is one, still its organization may be as varied as the temperaments of the people shall require. The devotees of every religion and creed have their "House of Prayer." Thus the composite people satisfy their religious instinct. In the face of a constantly changing population and of unsettled conditions of life, the churches have kept abreast of the needs both in the matter of their growth and of helpful service to the community. The emphasis may have been changed from theology to religion, but the essential spirit has never been more strong nor more of a formative influence in the com- munity life. Back of this efficiency has lain the ability to organize. There are "Captains of Religion," as there are of Industry. These men have so builded their modern organizations as to reach all classes of persons and so as to have a place for every member to do some part in the great work. These manv clubs and societies and associations of men and women 50 St. Francis Xaviers— R. C. Church and of young people are a power for good. They have helped to meet the perplexing issues of our complex society. Brooklyn calls her preachers from every direction, insisting upon large ability and deep consecration in its leaders. The services of Sunday are marked by deep devotion and are inspiringlv attractive. Soloists and choruses praise God and educate a love for the music of the masters. The religious instruction of the young is being modernized and rapidly reaching high efficiency. In the outward expression of religion perhaps the most marked features of the church in Brooklvn, are the prominence of inter-denominational work, and an intense interest in social service work. CHARITIES The problem of poverty and misfortune still remains to be solved bv civilization. Indeed the city has but accentuated the problem. While in Brooklyn these adverse conditions have appeared rather suddenly, the Borough has not been unmindful of them, nor of their serious character. 51 It has indeed been quick to respond, and many relief movements characterize our community life. One who is not familiar with this activity, would be amazed at the multiplicity of such organizations. The old days of Brooklyn Bureau of Charities. Behford Branch individual relief are passing because its futility and waste are becoming apparent. In its place associations are employed as more safe and effec- 52 tive. The churches of all faiths are to the fore in this work and the good they do is inestimable. Jewish, Catholic and Protestant societies are earnest in giving adequate relief to a condition that is unbearable to all alike. But everywhere is appearing the need of federation. In this direction the Brooklyn Department of Charities is more and more being trusted, as its scope of work and the amount of its service increases. The shadow of poverty becomes doubly dark when associated with sickness or dis- ability. In these, rich and poor alike feel the burden. For the public comfort and cure, many fine hospitals receive the support of our generous spirited citizens. Dispensaries in every necessitous community open their doors to the sick and offer medicines and the services of our best phy- sicians free to those in need. These relief institutions are most efficient. The aim of modern charity is correction. If childhood is properlv cared for crime will in large measure disappear. The "Big Brothers" of Brooklvn, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and many like asso- ciations of earnest men and women are doing much in a curative way. Retreats for women and children have been established wherein hope and courage may have rebirth. The conservation forces of society have also been earnestly fostered by Brooklyn. We have a Bureau of Charities and an Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor. There are many large and well supported homes in which the old live in comfort and security. Large provision has been made for the orphaned and for infants, while the blind and the crippled are cared for and trained to be self supportive. The city care of its insane is well-administered. St. Marks M. E. Church — Ocean Avenue 53 u EDUCATIONAL ADVANTAGES By Walter B. Gunnison >0 SPEAK of the educational facilities in Brooklyn, and their growth and development, is to speak of one of Brooklyn's greatest subjects of pride. For many years Brooklyn has been called a city of churches and a city of homes. It can just as truthfully be called a city of schools, a place where education is regarded as one of the city's most prominent features. Within twenty-five years the number of pupils in the public schools of Brooklyn has increased from 72,027 to 241,282. Twenty- five years ago the highest number applied to a building in Brooklyn was 43; today the highest number is 172, making an increase of 129 public schools during that time. At that time there was one little high school with a few hundred pupils, called the Central Grammar School, in order to con- ceal from the tax-payers the idea that a higher education was being given to the children. Today, there are six large high schools, any one of which is three or four times the size of the entire Central Grammar School of 1S85. The number of teachers engaged at that time was 1,332; today we have 5,491. In addition to this great development, which has kept pace with the tremendous growth of the city, has been the attention not alone to the safety of the buildings, making them all absolutely fireproof, but also attention to the architecture, which has given to the city of Brooklyn some of the most Polytechnic Institute beautiful school buildings that can be found in the country. Under the careful supervision of the Superintendent of Buildings, Mr. C. B. J. Snvder, the whole attitude in regard to school buildings has been absolutely changed, and all his buildings, whether primary or high school, stand as representing the highest type of school buildings in the country, and are visited by the architects of the country to determine the best types that can be furnished. 56 ^r&rortr&& In the matter of development of the schools — and we speak particularly of the public schools as furnishing the major part of the education of the borough — very marked changes have been made under the supervision and direction of our very able superintendent, Mr. William H. Maxwell. Under his management the question of politics and special privileges has been Boys' High School removed, and all appointments are made now purely on merit. Teachers are appointed from an eligible list, the rank of which is determined abso- lutely by the examination furnished by the Board of Education. The course of study has also been wonderfully extended. Those things which in derision were called "fads and fancies" have proved to be of substantial growth and development. The whole matter of hygiene, physical 57 Packer Institute culture, domestic science, sewing, care of the blind, deaf and crippled, recreation centers, vacation playgrounds, and the whole subject of kinder- garten education, and the professional training of teachers, are all fur- nished in addition to the schedules in operation twenty-five years ago. In all these movements the Borough of Brooklyn has taken a notable part and furnishes models in every respect which are being studied carefully by successful teachers in all parts of the country. The public schools, while constituting the larger work of the city, are also greatly aided by the academies and colleges. Pratt Institute has an international reputation and provides instruction on all technical voca- tional lines, and has under its instruction today 3,553 pupils. The Poly- technic Institute is another school which gives special attention to technical and engineering work, and it has developed steadily until within the last 5S -^ru/v ^ororW year under the able leadership of President Atkinson it numbered 573 pupils. The Packer Collegiate Institute, which furnishes an excellent preparatory course and two years of college work, accommodates 635 pupils, while St. John's College and Adelphi College have each large and increasing bodies of pupils attending their courses. The private academies, including the Polytechnic Preparatory School, the Adelphi Preparatory School, the Berke- lev and Froebel Academies, and many other similar academies, have for many years furnished to the city the best obtainable instruction as pre- paratory schools, sending both boys and girls in large numbers to the finest colleges in the country. Perhaps mention of the School of Art con- nected with the Adelphi College should find place under another division. Yet it grew up with the college, was in its inception and always has been educational in its purpose. If it has developed as a highly organized train- ing school, the graduates of which have followed art as a profession, yet it has never lost it original purpose. There is one other matter which should not perhaps be credited to MIS JtfitOf* *■ B'-frfV Bedford Branch, Y. M. C. A. Manual Training High School the Brooklyn schools alone, but to the significant change of attitude toward education, and that is the whole treatment of the subject of athletics, under the direction of the Public Schools Athletic League, of which General Geo. W. Wingate has been president since its organization. Athletics are treated very properly as one of the regular departments of education. The pupils of our schools, under the able management of the Public Schools Athletic League, are furnished with trophies of all descriptions for competition, are given supervision of all contests, public and private, and are under control, thereby changing absolutely the conduct and treatment of this very important subject. Should we speak of the other important educational facilities, we must mention the great libraries of the borough. In Brooklyn there are fifty- four public libraries, furnishing to the citizens the very best facilities for the classification of knowledge by the old and young. The Christian Associations for young men and young women furnish a very large instruc- tion, library facilities, entertainments, lectures, and fine athletic training under the best supervision. The new Academy of Music has very recently furnished a place to the Borough of Brooklyn where the very finest plays, 60 operas, conceits and lectures of all kinds may be given; while the Brooklyn Institute, with an actual paid membership of 10,000, furnishes a great opportunity for the citizens of the borough. Taking it all in all, we who live in Brooklyn can be justly proud of the educational facilities of Brooklyn anil can feel perfectly sure that there is no borough in the city, or in any city in the land, which furnishes finer opportunities for the proper development and enlargement, not only of the young of the land but of the adult population, than we have in our own borders; and we can only hope that the activity and foresight of those who have taken part in the development of the last twenty-five years, may be an inspiration to the men of today to continue their lasting and bene- ficent work. Commercial High School 61 o &»&£-'- '• -■ " .+•: ;.-.' J Photo by F. H. Evans Surf at Coney Island from Ocean Boulevard PARKS AND PLAYGROUNDS Herman A. Metz HILE the park area in Brooklyn is not so great as in many cities of the country, still in some respects our parks and drives are not excelled by any city of the world. They have natural beauties that are better than any artificially made outlines or decorations, and as you go from one end of the borough to the other you do not find its parks or its streets monotonous. They have variety and individuality. Here is a block in the heart of a closely settled district laid out perhaps conventionally in the form of a small neighborhood park with the trees, the fountain, the seats, invariably associated with such a retreat. But here is a great rolling stretch of land that from the days of the Indians has kept free and beautiful its hills and its vales, its massive trees and its natural waterways. The streets curve and stretch away into inviting distances, sometimes following the attractive wanderings of a long-forgotten trail of the early settlers or the aborigines, and even the splendid parked boulevards turn and branch into the various parts of the town instead of running in stiff parallel columns north and south as the driveways of the narrow burg across the river do. 03 One day of driving from end to end of Brooklyn will open the eyes even of those who have been brought up here to the beauties of this rambling, homelike town. At its eastern end you may enter from the splendid wilds of Forest park, which lies just outside its gates, and along the broad High- land boulevard, past the end of Long Island's "backbone'' of hills and with a view far across house tops and meadows to Jamaica Bay, you begin to see the bigness and unforced attractiveness of the town into which you have just come. Down the last of the big hills you sweep from this road into even a finer one and for several miles along the shaded and broad Eastern Parkway you drive straight through the heart of the city, passing now 64 A Park Scene Prospect Park and Maryland Monument mansions, now open fields, now clusters of cozy little houses, until at its end you find yourself in the famous plaza which leads the way to one of the finest natural retreats in any city — Prospect Park. Here are quiet paths, rolling meadows, charming groves, brilliant gar- dens, inviting lakes dotted with boats in the summer or sounding to the clicks of speeding skates in the winter. It would take days to explore all the nooks and corners and more days of fascinating study to learn all there is to know of Prospect Park's place in history, for in spite of its calm ap- pearance Prospect Park marks the site of one of the greatest battles of the Revolution and is otherwise interesting historically. Through this unrivaled park you drive and come out near an open space of peculiar interest to Brooklyn, the Parade Grounds, forty acres in extent, where all the borough goes to see games and maneuvres and reviews. Then, if you do not wish to explore the many pretty streets of Flatbush you may swing over into the entrance to the Ocean Boulevard and in one long, swift ride go straight to the shore of the Atlantic. It is at Coney Island that you have come out and now if you choose you may explore this great- est of playgrounds and in carriage or auto drive the length of Surf avenue to the tip end of the island, at Sea Gate. By another route you may skirt Gravesend Bay and reaching Fort Hamilton find yourself at the beginning of one of the most imposing driveways ever built, a curving roadway, nearly three miles in length, at the very edge of New York's Harbor, overlooking 5 65 ^U%^ 66 every ship, great or small, that passes in or out through the bay — the famous Shore Road. Then with a final sweep around its last curving slope, you reach another broad parked drive and head again toward the center of the city. F.ven such a comprehensive trip as this leaves out many interesting sec- tions and comes into touch with but a fraction of the park system. So re- nowned a spot as Fort Greene Park lies far from its reach, close to the business center of the town, telling its tale of history and martyrdom through the towering shaft that crowns its hill. And it has left no time for an ex- ploration of the botanical gardens which are one of the newest features of a pretty little triangular park which all but encloses the Brooklyn Institute. Then all through the rest of the borough, sometimes not recognized by name beyond the range of a few dozen blocks to which they afford pleasure and rest and a breathing spot free from noise and the danger of cars, are numbers of small neighborhood parks — Bedford, noted more than the rest on account of its unique Children's Museum; Carroll, Bushwick, Lincoln, Sara- toga, Stuyvesant, Sunset, Tompkins, and the rest — and playgrounds in every crowded neighborhood, provided with swings, sandpiles, balls, gymnasium apparatus, where the boys and girls, driven from the streets by trolleys, autos, horses and policemen, may revel to their hearts' content, learning new games from competent instructors, or playing whatever their fancy dictates in safety, enjoying the only real childhood their poverty can provide. Any- where and everywhere these child-saving places of wholesome amusement are tucked away — under the approaches to the bridges, in vacant lots be- tween factories, in a scarce corner of land among the tenements. Grecian Temple — Prospect Park 67 AMUSEMENTS AND RECREATIONS Bv James J. McCabe iUSIC — The season of grand opera at the Academy of Music brings to Brooklyn each year the greatest singers of the world. With these great artists, assisted and sup- plemented by the grand chorus and orchestra of the Metro- politan Opera House, the great operatic works, old and new, are produced under world-famous directors, and on a scale of magnificence approached by few of the great musical centers of Europe. Here, as elsewhere, the opera is recognized as the chief public enjoyment of the most exclusive society, as well as of the general music- loving public, and the performances are distinguished by an attendance which marks them as among the most brilliant functions of the social season. The concert season includes series of concerts by the great symphony orchestras, which rank with the great symphony performances of the Old World orchestras, and are very largely attended. In addition there are fine concerts by the smaller instrumental organizations, quintettes, quartettes, trios, etc., and by the various large choral societies; concerts and recitals bv famous vocalists and instrumentalists and innumerable events with Sathing at Coney Island 69 Crescent Athletic Club Boat House programs of varied character. Organ recitals are given in churches where fine instruments are installed, and in the high schools and in the Training School for Teachers; and throughout the summer season free military band concerts are given in the public parks. DRAMA The more important theatres of Brooklyn are for the most part comparatively new, and all, even the older houses, are commodious and comfortable and, as a rule, fitted and furnished most artistically. They range from the most expensive houses, which present only the great stars and the highest class of traveling companies all the way to the modest neighborhood establishments presenting a few vaudeville acts in combina- tion with moving pictures. Though important theatres are placed in various sections of the borough, the principal amusement center is the same as the principal business center, and the streets which are crowded with shoppers during the day are filled with amusement seekers at night. The playgoer has a wide choice, for in addition to the class of playhouses already mentioned, he will find good traveling companies performing at moderate prices, the highest grade of vaudeville, and some excellent resident 70 stock companies producing standard plays to a large and loyal clientele, at reasonable charges. The moving picture industry, undoubtedly the most remarkable form of low-priced popular entertainment that has ever been devised, thrives here as everywhere, and exhibition places are plentifully distributed through- out the borough. In amateur dramatics, Brooklyn has always held a prominent posi- tion, and some of the leading clubs have given regular performances for forty years or more. The amateurs of Brooklyn are an earnest and thought- ful body of workers, whose performances are distinguished by their high character, and they constitute an important factor in the artistic and social life of the community. The lecturer who has something to say or to show is always sure of a hearing, and the hundreds of lectures given by leaders of culture and thought in science, art and letters are attended by large audiences. At many of these lectures, the most advanced methods of illustration are employed, and at the free evening lectures given in school houses in various sections of the borough, the yearly attendance reaches enormous figures. Riding and Driving Club 71 RECREATION Practically every form of recreation requiring the development of special skill has organizations devoted to its particular interest and pro- moting its practice. Athletic clubs engaged in all forms of gymnastic and athletic work are thriving in all parts of the borough. Some of these are sumptuously housed, and are equipped regardless of cost, with the best of modern appara- tus and appliances for scientific physical development. Bowling clubs in great numbers enjoy the pleasures of this most sociable of indoor sports. All the leading social clubs have bowling alleys and bowling enthusiasts, and the numerous alleys for rent are in use by- private clubs of ladies and gentlemen on afternoons and evenings through- out the season. Bowling tournaments of all kinds are constantly in progress on the great public bowling places in all sections of the borough. Baseball was practically cradled in Brooklyn, for in the early days of the game many of the famous players had their homes and received their training here, and here were the fields on which were fought historic baseball battles before the day of the professional player. The field of the present National League Club has fine accommodations for thousands of spectators, and is at times taxed beyond its capacity. A great number of A Summer Day in* the Park &W1? Central Congregational Church amateur clubs may be seen at the Prospect Park ball grounds, each with its hundreds — sometimes thousands — of admirers. There are several tennis clubs with courts upon their own grounds, and courts in large number are laid out in Prospect Park. Golf clubs make constant use of the courses at Dyker Beach Park and at Forest Park; and the automobile clubs and the general automobile public realize to the full the pleasures of the great roadways. Riding and driving clubs have their regular shows and other events on the tracks and arenas of their own club quarters, and they also have at their disposal the roads and bridle paths of the public parks and parkways. Fishermen and marksmen have their organizations, using for their purposes the waters and the amusement parks of Brooklyn and vicinity, and presenting each season their interesting schedules of events. Brooklyn's water front offers exceptional advantages for water sports- men, which they have not been slow to realize. Gravesend Bay, Jamaica Bay, the waters about the harbor, and even the ocean itself, are utilized for regattas, races and cruises, by yachtsmen, oarsmen and owners of power boats, the numerous clubs fostering these various forms of enjoyment hav- ing their quarters along the shore. And there is Brooklyn's famous Coney Island, which has no competitor on the broad earth, where hundreds of thousands pleasure seekers go daily. 73 PROTECTION AND SECURITY By Otto Kempxer ^\E of the cleanest and safest communities in the countrv" — that is the judgment concerning Brooklyn often pronounced by observing persons who are familiar with all parts of the United States. No doubt the compliment is well merited, for in a moral sense Brooklyn does stand high above the average. Brooklyn's distinctive fame as a communitv of homes and churches has reached the antipodes. It is, indeed, the abode of a people long distinguished for their hearth-loving and God-fearing characteristics, no less than for their high order of intelligence and political independence. It must follow, as night succeeds day, that in such a com- munity, the enjoyment of life and property is as complete as finite human ability can make it. In safe-guarding a municipality, the fundamental elements of protec- tion are the police and fire departments. Where these essential branches of local government are efficient and adequate, substantial security is vouchsafed to all the inhabitants. How is Brooklyn provided for in these important particulars? Police Station — Sheepshead Bay POLICE PROTECTION As one of the boroughs of Greater New York, Brooklyn has not the privilege of an independent police system, but its interests are not neglected in consequence thereof. A force of patrolmen numbering 2,500 uniformed men are on constant duty throughout the borough, under the guidance of a full f f §!■■■ 'i M a ' - . - i Fire Headquarters Building — Jay Street allotment of superior officers. Thirty-five precincts divide the territory, each containing a rinelv equipped station-house which is conveniently located. Although the area of the borough includes 40,071 acres, every section of Brooklvn has its police-station within easy reach. There are vast dis- tances to be covered by the police who patrol the outlying portions of m A i 5 , N ! 1 i If '41 »: Itil I; •■'§>'! I 14TH Regiment Armory, 8th Avenue and 14TH Street the borough, but they seemingly get over the ground, for crimes of violence are of rare occurrence, and the sparcely settled sections appear as safe and as immune against marauders as the built-up and congested neighborhoods. That crime is at a low ebb in Brooklyn may be conclusively demon- strated by a comparison of police statistics. The arrests for 1910 for the entire City of New York numbered 170,681, but Brooklyn, including the Boroughs of Richmond and Queens, only contributed +7,785 towards the total. (It is necessary to quote the figures of those three boroughs together, because the inferior criminal court system divides the city into two divisions, the first containing the Boroughs of Manhattan and The Bronx, and the second being made up of Brooklyn, Queens and Richmond). In the First Division, over 10,000 persons were arrested on felonv charges during the past year, while in the Second Division the number was only 4,355. Over 1,500 arrests for burglary were made in New York, but Brooklyn escaped with a total of 695. For keeping disorderly houses the record shows 32<> arrests in Manhattan and The Bronx, whereas in Brooklyn, Queens and Richmond combined there were only 90 arrests for the same cause. Six hundred and fifty-three charges of robbery were preferred in the First Division, while in the Second there were only 19S. Thus it runs through the whole category of criminal offenses, showing that in proportion to the entire population there is at least thirty-three per cent, less crime com- 76 mitted annually in the Second Division than in the First Division; and if Brooklvn could be taken separately, the ratio of crime to the population, in comparison with the rest of the city, could be lowered to twenty per cent. FIRE PROTECTION In the matter of fire protection, the Borough of Brooklyn enjoys a full measure of security. The Fire Department in Brooklyn and Queens is in charge of a Deputy Commissioner, the main office being in Manhattan, but unlike the method prevailing in the Police Department, the Deputy Fire Commissioner possesses considerable independent authority and is in full control within his territory. The force in Brooklyn and Queens consists of 1,675 regular members, and it costs close to $3,000,000 to maintain it annually. The last annual report of the Fire Commissioner shows that the department has 75 engine companies, 30 hook and ladder companies and 7 hose companies in use in Brooklvn and Queens. During 1910 there occurred 14.405 fires in the entire city, of which number the total for Brooklyn and Queens was but 4,783. The loss by fire for the entire city reached the sum of $8,591,831, but the loss in Brooklyn and Queens amounted to only $2, 175,665. During the past year there was issued $775,400 of corporate stock of the City of New York to provide for the erection of new fire houses in Brooklvn and Queens. Our borough is well equipped in respect t.vrii Kimmknt Armory, Sumner, Jefferson and Putnam Avenues of a high pressure fire service, for the system covers an area of 1,546 acres. The pressure is supplied by three pumping stations, with 123,000 feet of mains and 740 hydrants in Brooklyn, and 8,500 feet of mains and 50 hydrants in Coney Island. The high pressure system operates in the following manner: On receipt of a fire alarm at a pumping station, simultaneously with that at fire head- quarters, a pressure of 75 pounds is immediately put on the mains, which pressure reaches the entire system before the Fire Department can arrive at a fire. There are high pressure telephone boxes adjacent to each fire alarm box, through which instant communication with the pumping station can be had, and orders for an increase or decrease of pressure, or the shutting down of the system, can be promptly communicated. The Brooklyn fire-fighters are a brave body of men, and many instances of individual courage are continually occurring. With equal emphasis the same meed of praise may be bestowed upon their brothers of the police force. NAVAL AND MILITARY PROTECTION Brooklyn is exceptionally fortified with defensive agencies in times of war. The Department of the East of the United States Army has its head- quarters on Governor's Island, which is located near the shores of Brooklyn, and Forts Hamilton and Jay are close by. The Brooklyn Navy Yard is well-known as one of the largest naval stations in the country. The National Guard is represented in Brooklyn by the Second Brigade headquarters, and throughout the borough are to be found the armories of the Signal Corps, Second Company; Squadron C, Cavalry; Third Battery, Light Artillery; and the Fourteenth, Twenty-third and Forty-seventh Regiments, Infantry. Fort Hamilton CIVIC ORGANIZATIONS Bv Johx N. Harmon BROOKLYN leads all the boroughs of the greater city in quantity and quality of activity for the betterment of social and civic conditions. Xo fewer than one hundred organi- zations today in the "Borough of Homes and Churches" are working separately and co-operatively for the improvement of "politics," to use a much maligned word in its true sense. No measure of importance, from a civic standpoint, has come before the municipal, state or federal governments for action since consolida- tion, without the delegation from Brooklyn appearing in greater numbers than any other to advance argument more intelligently. Formerly, when the me- tropolis was still in the em- bryonic stage of develop- ment, local jealously was prevalent and every section of this borough fought for improvements on the narrow principle of selfishness. What this error cost Brook lyn is inestimable, but can be roughly conjectured by comparison with the benefits that have been secured in other boroughs by united ef- fort of citizens and officials, in the way of transit develop- ment, park extension, and the increase of educational facili- ties, during the past decade. Just now a different spirit is inspiring the civic forces of all localities and real results are becoming apparent. Systematic co-operation through rep- resentative central organization is the method by which the big things are to be accomplished. The Brooklyn League and the Municipal Club and the Allied Boards of Trade are directing the field work for the scores of tax- payers' associations, subway associations, playground associations, and busi- ness men's associations, without interfering in the least in the government of the separate and smaller bodies. The neighborhood associations, the societies for alleviating poverty, the women's leagues, and the children's organizations find plenty of space for efficiency in the personal sense, inside the broad scope of civic duty. These Brooklyn Club Pierrepont. Corner Clinton Streets associations complement the efforts of the general improvement organiza- tions and right individual and social wrongs, in addition to securing favor- able legislation to safeguard and promote their various causes. Among the most important organizations engaged in civic and social work in Brooklyn are: The Citizens' Committee on City Plan, Brooklyn League, Municipal Club, Allied Boards of Trade and Taxpayers' Asso- ciation, Manufacturers' Association, Nineteenth Ward Improvement Asso- ciation, Broadway-Lafayette Avenue Subway League, Broadway Board of Trade, Brownsville Board of Trade, Central and Smith Street Board ^^s^=^ Masonic Temple, Lafayette Avenue of Trade, Cypress Hills Board of Trade, Downtown Taxpayers' Associa- tion, Flatbush Board of Trade, Flatbush Taxpayers' Association, Fourth Avenue Subway Association, Fulton Street Board of Trade, Grand Street Board of Trade, Ridgewood Board of Trade, South Brooklyn Board of Trade, Twenty-eighth Ward Taxpayers' Association, Wyckoff Heights Taxpayers' Association, Prospect Park South Association, Ridgewood Heights Improvement Association, Ridgewood Park Board of Trade. BOROUGH GOVERNMENT By Alfred E. Steers OT many citizens have a clear conception of the powers and limitations of the Borough President. Some are in- clined to think he is still the mayor of Brooklyn, and letters are often received, addressed to him as mayor of Brook- lyn. Other letters are addressed to him as the mayor of Kings County, also the president of Kings County. There is some reason for this latter belief as the Borough of Brooklyn comprises the whole of Kings County, as also does the Borough of Queens. Fu Court Streets and Beecher Statue The duties of the presidents of the different boroughs are not identical. For instance, in the boroughs of Richmond and Queens, the borough presi- dents have charge of the Department of Street Cleaning, while in Brooklyn this work is under the direction of a Deputy Commissioner of Street Cleaning. The functions of the President of the Borough of Brooklyn may be divided into two classes: First — Those which pertain to his duties in the Board of Estimate Bird's-eve View up Fulton Street and Apportionment, in which Board, with his two votes, he passes upon appropriations of the entire city, and all matters coming before that Board. As a member of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, he has the right to investigate any subject matter of policy of the city, or can go into the borough of another president and make such investiga- tions as he may deem proper for his own information. Second — Within his own borough, where his principal work is with the departments of streets, dealing with the paving and re-paving matters and with the sewers, he is also charged with the topographical surveys of the borough, and maintains a Division of Sub-structures, which depart- ment plots on charts the pipes, conduits and all other structures beneath the surface of the ground, so that by consulting these charts it is possible to learn where any important sub-surface structure is located. The Borough President has not — as is commonly supposed — charge of all the public buildings and offices in the borough. Those principal build- ings over which he has jurisdiction are the Borough Hall, the Municipal Building, the Public Comfort Stations, Public Baths, the Municipal and Magistrates' courts, the Tenement House offices, and such of the depart- mental offices under his charge and located in private buildings. Where offices of some of the city departments, however, are located in buildings 82 under the jurisdiction of the Borough President, the repairs and minor care of these offices are in the care of the Department of the President, but otherwise, as for supplies, etc., this comes under the authority of that department. The Borough President, however, maintains what is known as the Bureau of Buildings, entirely separate and distinct from the Bureau of Public Buildings and Offices. It is the duty of the superintendent of this department, and his subordinates, to inspect all new structures in the borough, also to carefully examine the plans for all new buildings and the alterations of existing structures before a permit for same is issued. The present administration is using every effort to secure an adequate municipal building, at a cost of $3,000,000. Among the extensive operations of the Borough President of Brooklyn might be cited the flushing plant for the Gowanus Canal, now com- pleted, representing an investment upward of $1,000,000. The Eighth Ward Market, which is being constructed at the foot of 36th Street, is a matter on which the city is spending considerably over $1,000,000. This market is very much needed by the Bay Ridge and the South Brooklvn sections, and will do for that territory what the YVallabout Market has done for the older parts of Brooklvn. The cost of maintaining and conducting the city government must neces- t- Tin 3 P w m ia ii niji Chemistry Building — Pratt Institute 83 sarily increase, and for several reasons. The city is growing very rapidly, in population and street area. We have, in this borough, nearly 1,100 miles of streets to maintain, with nearly 900 miles of sewers to care for. The increase in population necessarily makes increased demands upon every department, and the mandatory increases in wages must affect the total ": 1 9 Crescent Athletic Club expenditures of the city. It is not the policy of the present administration to continually cry economy so much as it is to secure efficiency of service and to gain an adequate return for the money expended. The question is necessarily asked, has the city administration advanced, in efficiency, to 84 the same extent as mechanical invention and private enterprise? If we look into the conduct of the city's business we find, in the engineering departments, men who are graduates of our best technical schools and who, in the course of their work, are evolving methods which keep pace with the present-day standards of mechanical advancement. Take, for instance, the improved machinery for road making, the improved methods of build- ing sewers and waterworks, etc. Note, also, the rapidity with which great bridges are now being constructed. In the mechanical or technical side of the city's work we can see there has been a marked improvement. Brooklyn Heights However, on the purely administrative side of the city government the improvement has not been so noticeable. The numerous citizens' associations and committees of the borough are, in a sense, an auxiliary service to the borough government. They become, as it were, inspectors located throughout the borough, and can advise the officials as to the requirements of their various sections. Their complaints are immediately investigated and, wherever possible and necessary, the remedv is forthcoming. The welcome held out to these associations and committees has had the effect of more intimately connecting the individual citizen with the government of the borough than was contemplated when the practice was established. 85 THE TRANSIT SUPERIORITY OF BROOKLYN By Edward C. Blum IROOKLYN, after a struggle of years with ups and downs of fortune and misfortune to those who fought for the borough's transit needs, is coming into its own. Each year now should see the rapid development of the borough as a perfect home community as well as a great manufac- turing and commercial center. Brooklyn is naturally a borough of homes and families. Nowhere in the world are advantages so great geographically and topographically. Her growth in recent years has been surprising to outsiders. It would be more surprising that her growth was not greater did we not know that transit conditions, a seeming apathy and a lack of appreciation for years on the part of the public of transit needs and how to secure them, stunted and held back developments. In spite, rather than on account of these conditions, Brooklyn has jumped ahead and will make even greater strides. The metropolis of beautiful Long Island, taking in all its extreme southern part with its irregular semi-circle shore front, indented with splendid bays that are destined to be the greatest harbors in the world and sweeping closely along the shores of Manhattan for miles, Brooklyn Flatbush Avenue — Junction of Fulton si; vK£s\«?< Subway — Borough Hall Station has unparalleled advantages of being a delightful, salubrious place in which to live, a wonderfully situated |?ort and manufacturing center, with the ocean on one side offering Jamaica Bay as a magnificent future possi- bility as a port, and Gravesend Bay and New York Bay, and the East River completing the semi-circle. The very expansiveness of its territory makes Brooklyn the easiest to get at from the business centers of Manhattan. Every section, in fact, is easier of access and quicker to reach from the principal points of the Borough of Manhattan, than any other borough. The radius from the center of Manhattan to any point of the compass on the extreme boundary of the Borough of Brooklyn is shorter than the distance between the northern end of Manhattan and less than half the distance from the extreme northern part of the Bronx to the center of Manhattan. The physical advantages for a comprehensive transportation system are therefore far greater. All the transit facilities from Bronx to Manhattan centers must be congested in parallel lines set in narrower space. The transit problems of Brooklyn have been solved by widely radiating elevated and subway trunk lines, branching out fan-like from all parts of Brooklyn into Manhattan, under the river or over the river, by various tunnels and bridges. These trunk lines reach out into a far-spreading level territory easily dug and unusually suitable for building. These trunk lines are fed bv an admirable system of hundreds of miles of electrified 87 roads, covering beautiful suburbs, where families may live in health and comfort at comparatively small expense. This vast breadth of territory permits avoidance of congestion that is almost inevitable in Manhattan and The Bronx. The East River, once a natural barrier, is now covered by so many bridges and will be burrowed under by so many more tunnels, that it will not be and is not now to be considered an obstacle. The elevated and subway lines now existing, under construction and planned for the future, are and will be able to carry a greater population speedily and comfortably. Brooklynites would do well to appreciate that they have the largest electric service system of railroads in the United States ready to feed trunk lines which will and are now making a borough and interborough system not only superior in its service-giving possibilities, but eventually to be enjoyed at a uniform fare of five cents, adding immeasurably to the other natural economies of this best of all home communities. Manufacturers already appreciating the advantages of our great shore front, will become more enthusiastic over the facilities of the borough when the great connecting road now being built by the Pennsylvania and New Haven and Hartford roads is completed. The line of this great passenger and freight road is without grade from the shores of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, around bv way of Jamaica and Queens over Ward's and Randall's Islands, to the Morris Park line of the New England roads. The right of way has already been secured and the tracks, depressed and elevated, are ready for traffic in South Brooklyn. Brooklyn has been opened to the country and all the country will be opened to Brooklyn. It will not be long before its healthful suburbs along the sea and inland will be transformed into more miles of beautiful villas and comfortable homes where the well-to-do, the clerk and the laborer will reside, within easy reach of their business places, enjoying the best of transportation facilities. Brighton Beach — Newkirk Avenue Station THE COMMERCE OF BROOKLYN By Waiter Hammitt )ROOKLVN is known as a community of homes. People seek this borough for many reasons, not least of which is the fact that it is a pleasant place in which to live. And no small measure of the comfort and satisfaction of living in Brooklyn are provided by retail commercial establish- ments which are not surpassed in service by those of anv other community in the world. To Brooklyn comes the best in merchandise that the world provides. The principal department stores — which are among the dozen largest in the entire country — send many representatives abroad several times a year and at all times maintain comprehensive and very large stocks of reliable merchandise at fair prices. Some of these stores indeed have permanent foreign establishments in special lines which enable them to provide for their customers a service that in these particulars is perhaps not rivaled by any other stores in the whole country. The fact that to these stores come patrons not only from Brooklyn, but also from Manhattan, New lersev, Connecticut and other still more distant places is indication of the ~j-- Bird's-eye View from Court Square towards Navy Yard S9 *J %&ar Jj — hjt ■ J 1* ^ '? W*t~'j3fbQ' •ixi* L JKJ! ypi .,.- tSafiB^'X' tii-. =^IP1 < ) j ' Jj M. ... [r, B- |fl $ ■(_■' ■■*". • .'.j . o IS^mmtmmn^ci. ' 1 Commandant's Residence and Spanish Guns — Navy Yard exceptional quality of the service which is daily at the command of the residents of Brooklyn. A similarly high standard is maintained by the retail commercial establishments of other sorts throughout the community. The neighbor- hood stores — butcher, grocer, baker, etc., — are almost uniformly conducted with ability and by their moderate prices provide plentiful opportunity for sound economy. The supplies of these stores come from the best sources. The coun- try's best comes naturally to New York, and the Brooklyn storekeepers have choice from these supplies, while their lesser fixed expenses — more moderate rentals, etc., — make it possible for them to make lower prices to their customers. Other branches of commerce have grown in recent years. The warehousing branch was always a feature and is now expanding. In the section which may be designated as the Fulton Street and that one in the Eastern District which was Broadway below the Bridge Plaza, the wholesale trade in various branches of commerce has grown largely. No convenience of living that might fairly be looked for in a large city with the best markets to draw from is missing in Brooklyn. Tele- phones are to be had for a five-cent toll. Gas and electricity are sup- plied at very low rates. The community has developed along those pleasant lines that make the resident well satisfied with Brooklyn. 90 MANUFACTURES By Frederic H. Evans iROOKLVN is destined to become the greatest manufac- turing section of the largest city in the world. The im- mense advantages it will have when the connecting rail- roads cross at Hell Gate, giving ample and satisfactory facilities for bringing raw material from every part of North America into the heart of the borough, have at- tracted the attention of far-seeing business men for the last half decade. Gradually and in ever increasing numbers manufacturers have been moving from Manhattan. This movement has so far been chierlv toward South Brooklyn and Greenpoint, but it is now extending more and more through the older sections. Already great factories built of concrete, brick and steel, absolutely fireproof, are going up on every hand. When the Pennsylvania Railroad, the New York Central and the New York, New Haven and Hartford can bring their freight to this borough, and by con- necting with the freight railroads to be built along our water front with spurs running to the factories on the one side and other spurs to the docks and wharves capable of receiving the largest steamships afloat on the Sugar Refineries — Brooklyn Water Front 91 Williamsburg Bridge other, Brooklyn will be the great manufacturing borough, while Man- hattan will maintain its supremacy as a commercial city. We have only to look forward a few years to see that with the advantage of raw material brought without transhipment or rehandling to our factory doors; the finished goods shipped by steamships which form great ocean ferries radiating to all parts of the world, without the ex- pense of trucking, lighterage and reshipment, Brooklyn will assume a commanding position in the industrial world. Manufacturers will always establish their factories where the cost of transportation is least and the steady and increasing movement from across the river which has set in, is not surprising to those who have considered the relative cost of pro- ducing goods in Manhattan and in Brooklyn. Real estate valuations in the Borough of Manhattan have increased so enormously in the last ten years, that rents have been advanced until they are prohibitive except where but small space is required and large profits are realized. What the growth of manufacturing interests in the borough is now cannot well be shown by comparing with the past, as the increase is so much greater each year, but a few statistics are interesting and sugges- tive. In the year 1900 the electric current generated and used for factory power purposes was 15,000 horse power. In 1910 it was approximately 75,000 horse power. It has been estimated that steam and gas engines have furnished quite as great an increase in power. The building operations for factory purposes show even more sur- prising results. Taking one section of Brooklyn where so lately as 1904 there were few if any factories, buildings have been erected with a total floor space of about 2,000,000 square feet — one hundred and twenty cor- porations, firms or individuals are doing business in them, giving em- ployment to over 7,000 persons. This number will be largely increased on the completion of factories now under construction. The business attracted here has come from all parts of the country, the largest per- centage from Manhattan, but many from New Jersey, New England, Chicago, other parts of the West and some from the South. These are the pioneers, the advance guard of a great industrial army who are com- ing from all parts of the country to share in our advantages. When we consider the changes that have been and are taking place — when the stupendous work shortly to be commenced at Jamaica Bay, giving not only manufacturing, but shipping facilities, such as New York has never known, is completed; when the great Barge Terminal is receiving the products of the West, and the Buttermilk Channel is deepened so that the largest ships in the world can come to our docks, who shall say what and where will be the limit of our development? Atlantic Docks 93 THE WATER FRONT By L. Fletcher Sxapp N A FEW years, according to present ratios of increase, New York will be the largest and most important city in the world, not only in population, but in manufactures and general wealth. Within a few years, too, — not more than ten, Brooklyn will be the premier borough of New York. Hence, Brooklyn is destined to be the key to the world's greatest metropolis. There are three reasons for this: its location, its area and its water front. Manhattan Island, or "Old New York," has reached its physical limits in portage, docks and piers, as well as in manufactures. Brooklyn, now con- nected with the mainland by an extensive system of tunnels, bridges and ferries is the logical selection for all future harborage development of great magnitude. This borough is practically surrounded by the greater harbor of New York — its shore lines measuring out 132.65 miles and inclosing an area of seventy-eight square miles. Within this area is now a population of nearly 2,000,000 and manufacturing establishments with an annual output of com- moditv having an approximate value of $1,000,000,000. Water Front — North of Wall Street Ferry 04 Bush Terminal The tremendous possibilities of Brooklyn's water front is therefore quite obvious. In the South Brooklyn water front have recently been com- pleted the largest docks in the world, made of steel and concrete and ex- tending out 1,500 feet into the water, having a depth of forty and fifty feet. These docks have twice the capacity of the greatest docks on Manhattan Island. Each could dock on either side two Lusitanias placed end to end. And yet this is but the beginning. In addition to tremendous investments in public and private docks along the East River, the Upper Bay — Erie Wall about Market Basin, Gowanus Bay and Canal, Atlantic Basin, Wallabout Bay, Newtown Creek, etc., plans now under way for further development on a gigantic scale forecasts a total cost of about $150,000,000. The greatest enterprise of this nature, in which the Federal, State and City governments have been engaged for some years in preliminaries through commissions and engineers, is the development of Jamaica Bay into a subsidiary harbor and port of Art Building New York. It is estimated that the consummation of this project alone will cost from $50,000,000 to $75,000,000. Jamaica Bay, protected by a natural barrier from the Atlantic Ocean, extends into the south-eastern section of Brooklyn with twenty-five square miles of water surface and twenty-five linear miles of water frontage — 96 more water surface and more water frontage than about the entire island of Manhattan. The work already begun in creating this harbor, involves first, the dredging of deep, wide channels from the ocean; the silt and sand thus obtained being used in filing in and reclaiming for purposes of utility 8,500 acres of marsh lands on the water front; and second, the building of city docks, piers and tenantable factory buildings and warehouses. The docking of ocean liners and coastwise vessels in Jamaica Bay, as against the facilities of Manhattan Island will save from three to five hours to freight and passenger traffic. To the portage commerce of New York, which is now about $3,000,000,000 a year and increasing at the rate of more than 2S'"r per annum, this advantage is incalculable, especially in view of the greater expansion in traffic which these facilities will insure. Jamaica Bay has also been selected by the Commission as the logical terminus of the 1,000- ton barge canal, the great waterway into the northwest territory now being constructed at a cost of $100,000,000. Though the public and pri- vate docks in the South Brooklyn water front with the immense Bush Terminal establishment of docks, factories and warehouses, now being built and projected are the largest units of their kind in the world and involve several score millions of dollars in cost — these take a secondary position to the Jamaica Bay en- terprise. Among the most im- portant docking and terminal establishments along the East River and Upper Bay — including the Bush Terminal, are the New York Dock Company, Eastern District Terminal Company and the Palmer Docks. Two-thirds of the great warehouse and manufacturing industries of the borough are within a mile of these dis- tributing points. The Brooklyn manufactories, therefore, have every point in their favor. A water front tramway for traffic, articulating with Jamaica Bay, South Brooklyn, the East River and Newtown Creek docks, and the great continental mainland — north, west and south — is also in a partial state of development. These great enterprises have largely passed the stages of dreams, talk, commissions and preliminary work. They are already begun, partly in ~ 97 Hotel Bussert Brooklyn Post Office operation and their final completion, with more or less variation in plans, absolutely assured: and people who sense the ultimate achievement, realize that Brooklyn — in the near future, too — is destined to be the greatest com- mercial center, not only of the western continent, but of the world. Chiefly among the water front enterprises are the great sugar refineries, petroleum plants, graneries, iron and steel mills, paper and textile specialty manufactories, which for years have made Brooklyn famous, the Wallabout Market, which gathers products from the truck farmers of Long Island and by water from New Jersey and other points, and the nation's Navy Yard, where some of the great dreadnaughts and other naval craft have been built. 98 THE HEALTH AND SANITATION OF BROOKLYN By Peter Scott, M.D. ^^JK^SjK HE publication on October 3rd of the death rate of Greater vhP/^Jff) New York, for the first nine months of 1911, by Commis- J&j sioner Lederle, created widespread comment. The average .(l^lfflSV rate of deaths in the corresponding period for the pre- ceding thirteen years was 18.77 per thousand of population; for the previous year (1911)), 16.23; but for 1911 as low as 15.56. And when we come to inquire as to the different boroughs, we find the figures for the first nine months of 1911 in Manhattan were 16.75, while in Brooklyn it reached the very remarkable low figure of 14.74 per thousand of population. These figures show the death rate of Manhattan and Brooklyn to be lower than any of the large cities of the world, except London and Berlin. Brooklyn has always maintained a lower death rate than Manhattan. Taking the figures for the last three decades we find: 1881 to 1890 Manhattan 26.6 Brooklyn 23.2 1891 to 1900 Manhattan 22.9 Brooklyn 21. S 1901 to 1910 Manhattan 18.5 Brooklyn 17.5 Methodist Episcopal Hospital 99 Now, just as the health of the individual depends on an intelligent applica- tion of the laws of hygiene, so too does the health of a large cirv depend on following these same laws. The fine situation of Brooklyn would avail nothing if the people living there did not submit to and assist in the enforcement of all laws, rules, and regulations included under the general term, "Public Health." And that term takes in not only the activities of the Board of Health, but also the Tenement House Commission, the Street Cleaning Department, the work of the Department of Sewers, and in part the work of the Board of Education. If Brooklyn is not exactly a "City Built Upon a Hill," it is, at least in Jewish Hospital — Classon and St. Marks Avenues great part, built on the west end of that ridge that forms the backbone of Long Island. Within the city limits the highest point of that ridge is between Prospect Park and Greenwood, near Vanderbilt Avenue. To the east and south lie Jamaica Bay and the lower New York Bay, and beyond that the Broad Atlantic Ocean. To the west and north lie the New York Harbor and the East River so that the city may be said to be swept by ocean breezes. The collection of garbage is a problem of equal importance to that of sewers. The separation by the housekeeper of ashes, garbage and rub- 100 bish was a simple affair, but made the collection and disposal of these things much easier. Garbage is collected daily, transported to Barren Island, treated by the reduction process to recover the grease in it, and the solid parts prepared for the manufacture of fertilizer. The process is expensive, but viewed as a sanitary measure it has proved to be the best. Most large cities and many smaller ones have adopted this method. In Brooklyn, as in Manhattan, about two-thirds of the population live in tenements, but this much can be said in favor of Brooklyn: there is a smaller number of families per house, that is, a larger proportion of three-family tenements than in Manhattan, where there are so main The College of Pharmacy large tenements, with twelve or sixteen families in each. It is possible now for a man with a small income to possess a healthful home even in a tenement. The new Tenement Laws permit no dark rooms, provide for air spaces (not shafts) between separate tenements, and provide con- veniences for everv suite of rooms not possible under the old regime. In Brooklyn the tendency is towards one or two-family houses, called dwellings. The figures of the Department of Buildings are interesting. In the five years ending 1910 the number of new one or two-family houses was 1 5,789, and of tenements 6,517, or 71% and 299r of the total number erected during that period. In Manhattan during the same period the figures are: of one and two-family dwellings 264, and of tenements 2,151, or 11% and 89% respectively. Over and above all sits the Board of Health, guardian of the health of the individual. From birth on through school age, even through adult age, it watches, and warns, and protects. Nurses and doctors are L. I. College Hospital, Polhemus Clinic 1U2 busy among the schools, so that the eyes, ears, teeth, throats and skin of the children are constantly watched for evidences of disease or defects. Instant isolation of cases of infectious disease is employed as the best way to prevent an epidemic. And even when the child has become an adult, and enters the mill or factory, the Commissioner of Labor at Albany watches Brooklyn Public Library over him, and must know at once if there exists a case of what is classed as "industrial disease." Now all these things being so, and as long as the known laws of hvgiene are intelligentlv followed, there is no reason why the remarkably low death rate of Brooklyn should not continue, or be made even lower; and unless some unforseen and unpreventable epidemic appears, that is what we expect, and what we are striving for. 103 Interior Williamsburg Savings Bank 104 BANKING AND THRIFT By V. A. Lersner iROOKLYN is the borough of thrifty people. It is well supplied with banks of all kinds and of institutions for savings. Its savings banks are the best in the country. In its original conception the savings bank was a neigh- borhood institution and was supposed to faithfully culti- vate its own particular field, which as a rule was not extensive. This spirit is indicated in designating savings banks by such local names as "East Brooklyn," "South Brooklyn," "Williamsburgh," "Bush- wick," etc. We may justly conclude that the deposits of the local banks represent quite largely the thrift of the community, and the surprising part of it all is that in the twenty-one banks of Kings County there are today deposits of $251,730,5(1(1, representing 489,000 people, an average of $514.80, con- siderably higher than the average for the United States. By law New York banks are permitted to loan sixty-five per cent, of their assets upon mortgage loans, and as a matter of fact about fifty per cent, is so invested. By this rule it would seem that over $140,000,000 of the thrift funds of Brooklyn have gone into mortgage loans, no doubt quite The Brooklyn Savings Bank Kir, largely on property in Kings and Queens counties, for the simple reason that rates are always better here than in Manhattan. It must never be forgotten that the savings bank is essentially a thrift agency. Its aim should never be, and where the banks have adhered to their fundamental purpose has never been, to pay large dividends and make the interest return the primary thought on the part of the managers. J*>„ lido ftrT-~5r II 14^- / ■ '-U People's Trust Company If it were not for the savings bank gathering the money of the mul- titudes in small amounts and then loaning freely upon real estate security, the development of our borough would have been retarded in no small de- gree. The savings bank has a standing offer to any man, that if he will accumulate enough money to purchase a lot it will erect a building for 100 him, provided the loan does not amount to over sixty per cent, of the total valuation of both land and building. This means that the man who aspires to home ownership — and such aspiration is one of the most common to humanity — and who will open a savings bank account and deposit his monev regularly until he may become the proud possessor of a bit of earth all his own, can own a home that will not only shelter him, but by renting H am. 89 Temple Bar Building out a portion, produce a profit which will in time liquidate his indebtedness. This process is going on all over Brooklyn, and the two-family house bears silent witness to the fact that home ownership is possible to the man who will deny himself for a few years some of the luxuries of life, and with wise counsel invest his savings in productive property that will carry itself to complete ownership in a few years. There is a savings bank in Brooklyn which has nearly five thousand mortgage loans on its books, not all of them loans on homes to be sure, but representing upwards of thirty million dollars of thrift funds of Brooklynites re-invested in realty to the profit of the bank as well as to the individual; and the thrifty citizen in doubt as to just what to do with his savings can make no better choice than to deposit regularly in some of our local savings institutions, until he can invest it in some permanent form which will yield him higher income than the bank can pay. Recent developments in the field of banking, serving a fine and most praiseworthy purpose in gathering and applying to a specific end, in gathering individual capital. These are the savings and loan associations in which the capital and receipts are loaned to members of the association to build and by easy instalment payments monthly of an ascertained sum, secure their own homes. These associations, which are indeed co-operative, are serving a fine purpose. There are two classes of members of the associa- tions. Those known as "borrowers," who utilize the association to obtain ownership of their homes and "investors," who weekly deposit amounts on which they earn fair interest. Thrift is encouraged in either class. The banks of deposit give the people of Brooklyn every banking facility and the trust committees in addition to banking business act as trustees and executors of estates, and all these institutions have the confidence of the public and are managed by able men. There are commercial institutions having their very necessary relations to commerce and therefore are not classed among those relating to thrift by saving. New York Bay from Owl's Head 108 THE BROOKLYN BENCH By Thomas P. Peters |NE gets a clear idea of the size of Brooklyn when he con siders that each business day there are upwards of forty judges sitting in almost as many court rooms throughout the borough dispensing justice. Our courts are numerous and exercise differing jurisdictions. At the top stands the '* Appellate Division of the Second Department, which meets in the Borough Hall. Brooklyn is the overwhelming factor in the second judicial district and so furnishes most of the work of that court. To it are brought all the appeals from the supreme and county courts. Brooklyn has twenty Supreme Court Justices. Four of these are assigned to the Appellate Division just referred to and three sit in what is called the Appellate Term to hear ap- peals from the municipal courts. This leaves thirteen justices for the work of the department. There are usually three justices holding court in the other counties of the district and thus there are con- stantly in Brooklyn about ten su- preme court justices for trial and special term work. Ranking next in importance comes the County Court, which while having civil jurisdiction we yet regard as the principal crimi- nal court. Kings county has two County Judges, but the work is so heavy that she frequently borrows one or more county judges from other counties. A distinctly criminal court of lesser importance is the Court of Special Sessions. It tries those who have been held by the city magistrates upon minor charges. It is composed of three justices. The ground work of the criminal prosecutions may be said to be done by the eight district courts presided over by the City Magistrates. These officials are examining and committing magistrates. Their jurisdiction to punish is very limited. One special part of this court is its Domestic Rela- tions Court, a tribunal devoted exclusively to the examination of differences arising between married couples. Flatlands Dutch Church '^soLk^. Alexander Hamilton Statue Front of Hamilton Club Domestic trou- bles present prob- lems for the judge all their own. Sometimes to pun- ish the father and husband is really to punish the fam- ily. It is often bet- ter to send the err- ing wife back to the home than to a cell. It is well that these cases can be given special study. There are sev- eral M u n i c i p a 1 Courts having civil jurisdiction up to $250. These settle all the small dis- putes of the trades- people and of the wage-earning classes. It is from these courts that appeals are taken to the Appellate Term. Kings County has, of course, a Surrogate's Court. She has but one Surrogate, although the business of the court is very extensive. The clerk of this court is permitted by statute to relieve the Surrogate of much of his former work. This makes the selection of the Surrogate's clerk an im- portant matter. In the Post Office building on Washington Street is the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Here preside two Federal judges, exercising the peculiar jurisdiction that attaches to a United States court. Brooklyn shows in her courts the most recent ideas. Her judges, as a class, are men of the highest type. To first offenders her courts are lenient For old offenders she has the sternest treatment. u z" w )3 2 ra H INDEPENDENT AND SELF-SUPPORTING By Benj. T. Butterworth )HILE Brooklyn welcomes those families who derive their support from Manhattan, it is not true as has been so often claimed that this borough's existence and growth depends upon the industries, commerce and trade of its neighboring borough. Even in the early days of Brook- lyn's life as has been shown in another chapter, Brook- lyn was independent of New York, and such is the extent and strength of this borough's commercial interests, that should (if such an event were < 1 ffi . k^^^^__i . ... Hi' <*f^+. ■^V Eh* " i All Souls Church possible) Manhattan be blotted off the map, and all the people of Brooklyn who labor in Manhattan remove to other sections of the country, Brooklyn would still be one of the largest cities in the world, reliant only on its own resources. While thirty or forty years ago there may have been some justification for the designation, "New York's Bedroom," yet there never was a time when there were not more Brooklyn people employed in Brooklyn than those who lived here but employed in New York. nzr There was a time when there existed in New York a feeling of resent- ment against Brooklyn on the part of real estate and political interests when it was found in certain localities that many residents were remov- ing to Brooklyn owing to the great influx of foreigners into their hitherto quiet residential neighborhood. That this movement of old families should be Brooklynward instead of "Uptown" was deeply resented. It was but natural that this migration should be to Brooklyn, especially after the ferries 23D Regiment Armory had established frequent communication between the two cities, and in even greater volume upon the completion of the Brooklyn Bridge. There had long been social and business intermingling between the two communities and intermarriages. The people of both were of the same class socially and intellectually and when the East Side families were crowded out of their neighborhood, they found that Brooklyn had advantages and social environment that the newer section of upper New York had not. While these families had moved their homes to Brooklyn, they still retained their business and occupation in New York, which fact accounts for the old saying that "Brooklyn is but a dormitory for Manhattan." 8 113 Temple Israel That there is no truth in the saying now is evident to everyone. The wonderful upgrowth of trade in manufacturing and in the extension of commerce, internal and foreign, its shipping and its increased facilities for conducting large business enterprises has brought about a condition whereby far the largest portion of Brooklyn's earning population find emplovment within its own boundaries. All this came about so naturally, though quickly, that the old Brook- lynite of a sudden woke up to the fact that this borough is one of the largest manufacturing centers of the country. Some ten years ago, Congressman William C. Redfield, then Commis- sioner of Public Works of Brooklyn, suggested an investigation as to the degree in which Brooklyn was self-supporting. The investigation showed that of the population in 19(12, estimated at 1,230,188, but 96,000 found employment or occupation in Manhattan and 261,000 in Brooklyn. The results of that investigation were published in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Tuesday, June 17, 1902. Reduced to percentages the investigation showed: Number of workers of whole population 29."' I Number of workers employed in Brooklyn 21.3% Number of workers employed in Manhattan 7.7'. 114 The number of people passing between the two boroughs within twenty- four hours was not represented in the 96,000 Brooklyn residents employed in Manhattan because it was shown that of the 240,000 people going to and fro between Brooklyn and Manhattan only 40% were actually employed in the latter borough. These basic figures have changed in the past ten years. The popu- lation has grown to, at least, 1,700,000, an increase of 3S.l f /c, and com- merce and manufactures has so largely increased that the number em- ployed in Brooklyn has grown from 261,000 at the time of the investigation, to 420,000. The 1910 United States Census show that in manufactures alone, the number employed has increased from 114,927 in 1900 to 139,927 in 1910, an increase of 21.7';. If an investigation in 1912 were conducted on the same lines as that of 1902 it would clearly show that if the total figures have been enlarged in the growth of Brooklyn, the percentages have not been materially changed. What change there is, slightly increases the number earning in Brooklyn and slightly diminishes, relatively, the number earning in Manhattan and residing in Brooklyn. It is therefore evident to all that Brooklyn is today self-supporting and owes its present prosperity and its future prospects to its own growth — - energy and industry. Boating ox Prospect Park Lake 115 Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in: BROOKLYN OF THE FUTURE Joseph V. Witherbee 'HE importance of the City Planning Movement in Brooklyn has become so apparent to all public-spirited citizens that it is now recognized as a permanent civic feature — a feature which is necessary to the future development of the borough along practical, useful and harmonious lines. From the haphazard manner of city planning — or rather the absence of city planning — in the past, system has been evolved, and the perfecting of this system means that the borough orderly is to take the place of the borough disorderly. The mere fact that public improvements, in the way of buildings, parks, or boulevards, are made in Brooklyn, will not add to the attractiveness or to the utility of the borough un- less these improvements conform to one compre- hensive plan under the direction of an authorita- tive and a competent head. It is toward the achievement of an orderly borough that the Brooklyn Committee on City Plan is working. Many efforts were made to start a movement toward a sys- tematic city plan, such as are under way in Chicago, Cleveland, Boston and Washington, but it fell to a clergyman, the Rev. Dr. Newell Dwight Hillis of Plymouth Church, to sound the note for Brooklyn which met with a prompt response from all good citizens. Closely following his suggestion was the visit of Daniel H. Burnham, who, above all others in this country — perhaps in the world — is the master in the planning of cities. Mr. Burnham viewed the situation and, in his address at the dinner given in his honor, pointed out the way. The organization of the committee was quickly accomplished. It is composed of some two hundred members who have been selected from citizens having the best interests of the borough at heart. The chairman is Frederic D. Pratt; the vice-chairmen are A. T. White, the Rev. Dr. Newell Dwight Hillis, David A. Boody, Charles A. Schieren, John McNamee, William McCarroll, James H. Post, Edward M. Bassett and A. A. Healy; Major J. W. Tumbridge is the secretary, E. T. Maynard the treasurer, and Beth Elohim Synagogue 117 the executive committee consists of Edward C. Blum, C. H. Fuller, Herbert F. Gunnison, Walter Gibb, F. L. Babbott, Franklin W. Hooper, Frank C. Munson, Willis L. Ogden, Charles J. Peabody, Robert B. Woodward, William H. English and H. O. Wood. The committee appointed Edward H. Bennett, who is associated with Mr. Burnham, architect to have com- plete charge of the plans. In formulating these plans Mr. Burnham will give his aid and advice. Entrance to Greenwood Cemetery While in all respects this movement is undertaken on the part of the public the city authorities have universally approved it and announce their intention to co-operate with the committee in the development of the plans. Several notable features of borough improvements are under way, among them a new treatment of the Brooklyn approach to the Brooklyn Bridge, a new courthouse, a new municipal building and a new library. 118 CS*i All these and other competent improvements will be carefully studied b> the committee and Mr. Bennett. But the planning movement will not stop at Brooklyn. The spirit of progress has extended to the length and breadth of Long Island. Mr. Burnham suggested that all Long Island, from Montauk Point to the Brooklyn Bridge should be included in one harmonious plan of development. And a start in that direction has been made. Queens, Nassau and Suffolk counties have planning committees for the purpose of uniting with Brooklyn in one grand project of improvement. It is proposed to build boulevards the entire length of the Island connected by cross-island roads and so advance the individual improvements of the counties that they will become a part of the system of harmony. This is only a brief outline of the work which has been undertaken. One must read between the lines if he would glance into the future. He need not be a dreamer to see what the future will bring forth in the way of utility, attractiveness and greatness for Brooklyn and for all Long Island. J. S. T. Stranahax Statue 119 120 Academy of Music THE DESTINY OF BROOKLYN Frederick \V. Roue HE destiny of Brooklyn lies in its topography, its advan- tages and its spirit — in its area, its water front and its contiguity to the sea. There seems never to have been a time when the thoughtful Brooklynite did not have confi- dence in Brooklyn's great destiny. They peered into the future and saw the time when the East River as a line of separation from the rest of the country would be removed. So confident were they of the future greatness of Brooklyn that, shortly after it became a citv, they began a government building that should be commensurate Hamilton Club 121 u with the future thev saw. They laid the foundations of a structure which should cover all of the space now occupied by the present Borough Hall and the open grounds surrounding it. A financial panic which laid the whole country low, halted the work with the result of building a smaller edifice within the space intended for the larger one. Perhaps we have been inclined to laugh at the optimism of those years yet almost ever since we have been building additional buildings to accommodate that great growth which our forefathers so clearly saw. Under physical disadvantages of isolation the growth of Brooklyn was so great as to excite the wonder of sociologists. Brooklyn has always Tompkins Avenue Congregational Church 123 OS < o X < o m 124 grown. Nothing could keep it down. In its early days it began to work out its destiny. And when a bridge was thrown across the East River it leaped forward with such a bound that its destiny was revealed even to the dull and the unthinking. Retarded as it has been by insufficient transit accommodation it nevertheless has gone forward increasing its commerce St. Ann's P. E. Church and multiplying its population. Adequate transit facilities will in a very few years be a Brooklyn possession. If Brooklyn has grown to be the great community of 1,700,000 that it is now, what must be its growth when transit facilities are an adequate fact and all of its natural advantages can come into full life? The destiny of Brooklyn lies in its growth. The statistician, Dr. Caca- vajo, has made this prediction as to the growth of Brooklyn in population: 125 Population In 1920 — Eight years from now - - - 2,500,000 In 1930 — Eighteen years from now - - 3,500,000 In 1940 — Twenty-eight years from now - 5,000,000 In 1950— Thirty-eight years from now - 7,000,000 There are men who today are active in the affairs of Brooklyn who will live to be active in the affairs of our community when it numbers its people by the 7,000,000. And those men will see that their community leads in commerce, and in manufactures, as well as in population. And they will see that it will continue to be a "City of Homes" — that under the stimulus of its great growth what makes a city worth while — its charities, its churches, its educational institutions, its art movements, its libraries and its healthful sports — will grow in proportion with its material growth while it will become the City Beautiful through the execution of its plans that have already been initiated. That is the destiny of Brooklyn. To lead in population, in commerce, in manufactures, in the arts and sciences, in the benevolences of charity, in the refinements of life in the churches, the multiplied libraries, the educa- tional institutions and of the social life based on intelligence, refinement and morals. 120 The Heights Casino FACTS ABOUT BROOKLYN By Edwin G. Martin iII'HIN the limits of what is now the Borough of Brooklyn, the first European family, deorge Jansen de Rapalje, set- tled in the Spring of 1625. On the 9th of June of the same year, the first child, Sarah Rapalje, was born. This family settled at a point near the site now occupied by the Navy Yard in the Wallabout Section. According to the United States census the population of Brooklyn grew from 1,166,582 in 1900 to 1,634,351 in 1910, an increase of nearly half a million in ten years, the rate of increase being 40%. Vital statistics for 1911 are interesting. They show the number of Marriages were, 13,923; Births, 44,9(11; Deaths, 24,827. Brooklyn has within its boundaries 560 churches. There are 2S branch Flatbush Congregational "Meeting House" public libraries with a circulation of 4,236,602 volumes. The number of volumes is 705,426. There are 1,720 firemen and 2,342 policemen. Brooklyn has 38 parks with a total acreage of 1,133.43. The total miles of streets is 1,099, of which 727 miles are paved and 72 miles are macadam roads. There are 892 miles of sewers and 967 miles of water mains. 265,441 pupils are registered in the 167 public schools and the teaching 127 force is 5,683. The number of pupils registered is only a few thousands less than the number registered in Manhattan. Of High Schools there are seven and the pupils registered therein are 17,955. In 1911 permits were issued for 5,288 new buildings at an estimated cost of $32,59S,240. In the same year the number of new buildings com- pleted was 4,202 at a cost of $27,999,234. Assessed value of personal property in 1912 - $4S,753,9S5 Assessed value of real estate in 1912 - - - 1,674,742,409 Brooklyn has in the State Legislature 23 Assemblymen and 8 Senators; while in the House of Representatives there are 6 Congressmen. In 1911, 231,492 voters were registered, of which 214,317 voted. 12S Pratt Institute AUG 24 1912 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 009 564 677 3