Walkabout: The Great Gathering, Part 3

Read Part 1 and Part 2 of this story.

On June 27, 1881, a fire broke out at the Brooklyn Institute, on Washington and Concord Streets, in what at that time was the center of the city. The Institute was the premiere arts and science facility in Brooklyn, and its three story building held a lecture hall, library, exhibit spaces, offices, and on the top floor, painting studios.

The fire started in artist Ferdinand Boyle’s studio, and soon spread to the other studios, which were only separated by partitions. It then spread downstairs to the library and lecture hall on the floor below. None of the artists in the four studios were present at the time.

The alarm was raised by the librarian. The fire engines raced to the Institute from stations on Pierrepont, High, and Adams Street. For a modern day reference, Washington St. has become Cadman Plaza East, and the Institute stood at the eastern end of what is now the Plaza, near the entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge.

It looked as if the building would be lost, along with a boarding house next door, but in the end, the fire brigades were able to put out the fire, and contain it to the top floor.

There was a lot of smoke and water damage to books and exhibits, and the most valuable thing to be lost was a painting called Snow Scene, or Brooklyn in 1820 by Francis Guy, an invaluable painting showing the town of Brooklyn, along with the homes and businesses of some of Brooklyn’s oldest families. The painting had held a place of honor in the lecture hall, directly beneath the artists’ studios, and directly beneath the fire.

Perhaps it was this fire, and the loss of a valuable painting, as well as damage to books and exhibits, that prodded the Institute to start thinking about a new home. Besides, they needed some room!

By 1888, the Brooklyn Eagle notes that the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge had taken the Institute from a rather overlooked area of town into the center of everything, as the entrance to the bridge was now practically by their door.

The institution now had 27 separate departments, spanning everything from fine art to electricity, music to etymology. All of these departments were vying for space for their offices, exhibits, research materials and artifacts.

With this in mind, in that same year, a committee of Brooklyn’s elite was formed to oversee the building of a museum for the City of Brooklyn. The newly formed Department of Architecture was recruited to hold a competition in 1889, for the design of this marvelous edifice.

Since it was decided that all major building projects of this magnitude selected their architect and design by competition, it would only be fair to do so here. The Department of Architecture chose their president, George L. Morse, as judge, as well as Professor A.D.F. Hamlin of Columbia College, and Robert S. Peabody, a prominent Boston architect. Each contestant submitted numbered plans and models, so it was conceivable that even the humblest journeyman architect could compete against some of the day’s biggest names.

In the end, the choice was between designs by Brooklyn’s own Parfitt Brothers, Carrere and Hastings, the firm of Cady, Berg & See, and those of McKim, Mead & White, who were judged to be the winners. The new museum would be a massive limestone and marble edifice, in the newly popular White City/City Beautiful Classical style, and would be the equal to any museum in America.

In 1895, the New York State legislature ordered the city of Brooklyn to put aside the 45 acres it already owned when it acquired land for the creation of Prospect Park, and the museum was planned for the intersection of Washington and Eastern Parkway.

The State legislature then ordered the Brooklyn Institute to sell its current property on Washington St, and turn over the proceeds to the newly formed Institute of Arts and Sciences, with the understanding that the work of the Institute would go on while the new building was being built.

Lastly, the state authorized the city to sell bonds to finance the museum, while the Institute was also mandated to raise an additional $200,000 endowment for the project through subscriptions and donations, which the Institute easily raised. It was estimated that it would cost $275,000 to construct the first wing of the museum, which would open in two years.

While the museum was being constructed, the contents of the old Brooklyn Institute were placed in several places. Many of the artworks owned by the Institute were temporarily displayed, or were in storage, at the Brooklyn Arts Association, on Montague St. between Court and Clinton.

Most of the library books from the Institute were also in storage there, while many private collections went back to their donors for the duration of construction. When the fire destroyed part of the Institute, lectures and laboratories were held off-site, as well.

The YMCA, which was located on Fulton Street, became the main lecture hall, while Packer Collegiate offered their laboratories to the Physics Department. The Institute also rented a large estate with dormitory and lab space in Cold Sprint Harbor, on Long Island, to which embarked the biology, ecology and other natural science departments.

In 1893, the Institute leased from the city, a large mansion called the Spanish Adams Mansion, on the corner of Prospect Avenue and Brooklyn Avenue, at the edge of Bedford Park, in the Saint Marks District.

There, the departments of geography, zoology, mineralogy, botany, and geology were set up, and exhibitions set up in various rooms. In 1895, the library was moved from storage to this location, and re-opened.

The Spanish Adams Mansion was used as the outpost of the Institute until 1899, when it was re-purposed as the Children’s Museum and Library, the first children’s museum in the country. The museum still stands in the same location, now called Brower Park, in Crown Heights North.

The museum was built in stages, the whole project budgeted to be $3,000,000. As each part of the building was added, new funding was raised, new contracts were bid upon by builders and contractors, and each section was opened with much fanfare and pomp.

The first section was completed in 1897. Interestingly enough, the center wing with the grand staircase, was not built first. The section to the right of it was first, followed by the center, moving left. Ground was broken for the central section in 1900.

Additional stories were built on top of the whole structure after the initial bases of the building was built. The plan was to have the arts section of the museum next door, as it were, to the science wing of the building.

But the best laid plans of man often don’t work out the way they were planned. If McKim, Mead and White’s entire building had been built, it would have been the largest museum in the city, and one of the largest anywhere.

However, as time went by, the money and the will started to dry up. When Brooklyn joined the rest of New York City, it was felt that this grand museum would be too big and too important, and would eclipse Manhattan’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Can’t have that, now can we?

The history of this important institution goes on, but here’s where our story ends. There are so many more tales to tell here. Stories about the collections and their donors, many of whom were the cream of Brooklyn’s upper crust.

Also present are tales of the personalities involved, the egos, the wheeling and dealing, the hiring and firing, the resignations and the feuds. And of course, the money and the power. What happened to the sciences?

These questions will have to wait until another time, after much more research. This ends this part of the tale, be sure that I will return at some point with more. In the meantime, visit the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, now called the Brooklyn Museum. It truly is a world class museum, just as its founders designed.

Sources of information: Brooklyn Daily Eagle, New York Times

[Images via the Brooklyn Eagle]