When Brooklyn Lost Its Swagger

WHEN BROOKLYN LOST ITS SWAGGER: THE CONSOLIDATION OF 1898  Thursday, September 24 at 9:00p  Brooklyn was a large, proud, and independent city until 1898, when it was consolidated into the newly conceived five-borough NYC that exists today. Ever since, generations of bitter Brooklynites have grumbled about living in Manhattan’s shadow, but Brooklyn’s downgrade from city to borough was welcomed by many 19th century Brooklynites who saw is as a way to save their hometown from bankruptcy and irrelevance. Manhattan Borough Historian Michael Miscione will reveal all the dirty details behind what some Brooklynites still call “the mistake of ’98." (Note: This presentation is part of a Nerd Nite double feature at the BHS. The second presentation, by Mike Liss, will be recount the heyday of New York City tabloid journalism.) The Brooklyn Historical Society 128 Pierrepont Street, Brooklyn  $10 admission More info and tickets: http://brooklynhistory.org/visitor/calendar.html

NEW YORK CITY'S FIRST BLACK FIREFIGHTER

In 1919, Wesley Williams became the third black male to join the ranks of New York’s Bravest. Despite severe discrimination he rose to Battalion Chief. Almost a century later, the FDNY remains predominately white. NY Daily News reporter Ginger Adams Otis is joined by members of the Vulcan Society, an organization of black firefighters, to talk about the ongoing struggle to diversify the FDNY.

Book Talk: Ginger Adams Otis, Firefight: The Century-Long Battle to Integrate New York's Bravest
Tuesday, July 7th $5/Free for BHS and G-W MembersDoors open at 6pm. Event begins at 6:30pm.Please note that seating is first come, first served.

REFUND POLICYBrooklyn Historical Society requires 24 hours notice before the date of the event to refund a ticket. No refunds are provided after that point. This means no refunds are provided on the day of the event and all subsequent days.

WEEKLY SUNDAY BROOKLYN MUSEUM TOUR

This is Brooklyn!
Sun, Jun 21, 1pm
FREE with Museum Admission

Learn the history of Brooklyn through the lens of our building in this hour-long tour. Longtime Brooklyn residents and first-time visitors alike will enjoy fascinating details about this special building and extraordinary borough.

Offered every Sunday at 1pm!

TENEMENT MUSEUM TALK - SEEING THE RUINS talk

Remains of the Day The magic of stepping inside 97 Orchard Street is not only seeing the recreated apartments but also seeing the ruins, which are apartments that have been left as we found them in 1988. Experiencing these ruins helps us understand the passage of time. For the April 29 Tenement Talk, please join us in an appreciation of ruined spaces with Andrew Dolkart, Director of Columbia University’s Historic Preservation department, Katherine Malone-France of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and photographers Christopher Payne and Marisa Scheinfeld.

4/8 SEAPORT MEETING POSTPONED

Update:  Save Our Seaport will postpone our meeting of April 8 in order to avoid any schedule conflicts with Borough President Gale Brewer’s celebration of 50 Years of NYC Landmarks.  We’ll look forward to seeing each other at the U.S. Custom House that night! Save Our Seaport will be meeting Thursday, April 16, at 6:30pm in the St. Margaret’s House Library, 49 Fulton Street. (Map) The meeting will begin with a guest presentation from Mike Weiss, Waterfront Foreman of theSouth Street Seaport Museum, discussing the Museum’s presence, plans, and opportunities for participation in the South Street Seaport Historic District.

NEW YORK CITY: 1804-1808

1804

July

Aaron Burr departs from Manhattan, travels to Albany. He will soon move on to Amboy, New Jersey, and then further south.

Jul 12

Alexander Hamilton, mortally wounded yesterday in his duel with Aaron Burr in Weehawken, New Jersey, is brought to Manhattan where he dies at the home of his banker friend Robert Bayard near today's Greenwich Village.

Oct 18

Future lawyer Eugene Kateltas is born to a wealthy and respected family in Manhattan.

New York City

Wealthy merchant Jonas Wood builds a house at 314 Washington Street.    **    John Jacob Astor purchases a plot of land at 133 LaGrange Terrace (Colonade Row).    **    Young ship's mate Dennison Wood, working on a vessel bringing sugar to the city, marries 17-year-old Lydia McKildo.    **    The approximate date Connecticut shoemaker Benjamin de Forest comes to Manhattan and opens a shop - Benjamin de Forest and Company - in the harbor area at 31 Peck Slip.

1805

New York City
Construction begins on the Commandant's House at the Brooklyn Navy Yard on the East River, in the Vinegar Hill neighborhood. It will be completed next year.

1806

New York City

Population: 60,000.

1807

Apr 3

A New York City act is issued under the title Remarks of the Commissioners for Laying Out Street and Roads in the City of New York.

New York City

The Orphan Asylum Society of New-York is founded by Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton (wife of Alexander), the city's first private orphanage, at West End Avenue and 73rd and 74th streets.    

1808

Apr 25

Brooklyn municipal official and U.S. Representative James Samuel Thomas (S.T.) Stranahan is born in Peterboro, New York, to Samuel Stranahan and his wife Lynda Josselyn Stranahan.    

May 28

Minstrel show producer Thomas Dartmouth "Daddy" Rice is born in Manhattan's Lower East Side.

Aug 8

Merchant and real estate operator Henry Evelyn "E." Pierrepont is born in Brooklyn to Hezekiah B. Pierrepont and his wife Anna M. Constable Pierrepont.

New York City

Grace Church is organized at Broadway and Rector Street.    **    Visiting free Ethiopian seamen and African-American parishioners, protesting racially restricted seating, leave the First Baptist Church at Broadway and West 79th Street. Next year they will found the Abyssinian Baptist Church, the third oldest Baptist Church in America.

©  2015 David Minor Eagles Byte

BHS Presents the JIM CROW ERA AND THE GREAT MIGRATION

ISABEL WILKERSON
on the GREAT MIGRATION

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Warmth of Other Suns
speaks about the story of the Great Migration. Isablel Wilkerson
devoted 15 years to the research and writing of this book and
interviewed more than 1,200 to tell the story of this watershed
moment in American history.  The Warmth of Other Suns was
named to more than 30 Best of the Year lists and won the
National Book Critics Circle Award.

To learn more about the Great Migration join the Brooklyn
Historical Society tomorrow night (14th) at 6:30 PM.
for a screening of an episode of The African-Americans: 
Many Rivers to Cross about the Jim Crow Era and the
Great Migration.

$20/ $15 for Society members