City Hall Square
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About the Author
Russell Granger is the founder and CEO of Arch Digitals, a branding and marketing agency specializing in strategy and design for engaging customers online. He began focusing his research and archiving efforts on antebellum Brooklyn when family history pursuits led to the discovery of an association with Walt Whitman. Russell currently lives in the Dumbo neighborhood of Brooklyn, just a few streets from several ancestral addresses from the 1830s.
Montague Hall
Rare image of the west side of City Hall Square, circa 1850.
Antebellum Brooklyn was somewhat famously lacking in theatrical venues, especially when compared with New York. This was not entirely unintentional. The Bowery was close enough, and a taciturn pride characterized many Brooklynites who considered their multi-function meeting halls more than suitable for lectures, musical programs, events, and theatricals.
City Hall
Brooklyn City Hall, 1851, by John Bornet. View from Montague Street. Period tinting.
Had Brooklyn City Hall been built on the original foundation laid for it, it would have been considerably larger than it is. Begun just prior to the New York financial crisis of 1837, construction was halted until 1845, when a simplified Greek Revival plan was adopted, designed by prominent architect Gamaliel King.
The Military Garden
Currently the only known image of the old Military Garden buildings, this once charming area was already well past its prime by the time of this 1860s photograph.
In the late 1870s and 1880s Brooklyn readers evidently couldn’t get enough of old Brooklyn reminiscences from old Brooklyn residents, for the local papers were full of them. The heady nostalgia was undoubtedly precipitated by the milestone building of the Brooklyn Bridge, and the loss of a good swath of the old neighborhood due to its construction; the old city was virtually unrecognizable by this time, and the old Brooklynites were dying off. When it came to thoughts of merry-making and entertainment in the city’s formative years, no place was mentioned more often or with greater reverie than the Military Garden.