I attended Mr. Grout's dinner last evening. Mr. Grout read an address which was carefully prepared, and which led up to the proposition with which he has already acquainted you, namely, that an application should be made to the legislature or the Board of Regents for a charter for a university in Brooklyn, which university should be situated possibly on the east side lands near the museum and should be controlled by a Board of Trustees nominated by the Mayor, and should be maintained as a part of the city system of education. Mr. Boody and Mr. Littleton made speeches warmly supporting the proposition. A good many other gentlemen spoke briefly to the effect that they warmly favored the proposition to establish a city college or university, and were willing to do what they could to help along the project. Among these gentlemen were Messrs. Alexander E. Orr, Ex-Mayor Schieren, Mr. Rossiter, President Atkinson - of the Polytechnic -, and Senator McCarren, and Messrs. McKelway, McLean, Berri and Peters, representing the four Brooklyn papers. All of these gentlemen, I think without exception, spoke only of the general proposition to consolidate the existing colleges and establish a strong college or university under city auspices. None of them discussed details. Professor Hooper was the only one who entered into a discussion of details. Professor Hooper said that there was not room enough upon the east side lands for a college campus, and that when the museum was completed no other buildings could be put up on that plot of ground without giving the appearance of unduly crowding the museum building. He suggested as a better site for a college campus, the land along the parkway to the east of the museum. Professor Hooper also opposed the endowment of a local college or university by the city. He affirmed that it would be much better if such a college could be kept away from the risk of political influence, and could be adequately endowed by private beneficence. He spoke somewhat at length of the possibility of finding people in Brooklyn who would be willing to give an adequate endowment for such an institution. Mr. Grout and Park Commissioner Kennedy and Professor Hooper entered into a slight and brief discussion concerning the east side lands, and the right to use them for such a purpose. Finally a motion was adopted, without any dessenting voices, that Mr. Grout should proceed to name a committee of one hundred, who would meet and organize, to procure from the legislature or the Board of Regents, a charter for for a college or university in Brooklyn. I believe that the resolution included nothing else, not even any reference to the possible financing of the enterprise by the city.
My belief is that a large part of the interest displayed in this scheme by Messrs. Grout and McCarren is due to their perception that the project is not only a worthy one as a piece of educational development, but that it also has some value as a move in the game of politics. At the same time I am heartily glad to have representative citizens discussing such schemes of improvement, whatever the mixture of of motives, and I welcome last night's meeting as a distinctly encouraging step.
However, I believe with Professor Hooper, that the east side lands are too small for a proper college campus. It would be foolish to start in as a part of the city system with a campus that did not leave ample room for growth for a hundred years. That part of the east side lands not occupied by the museum when completed, and by the new public library building, would be only large enough to hold buildings. What such an institution should have is a generous campus, fit to hold not only all the buildings that are needed, but open spaces and an athletic field besides. Such lands could be secured on the parkway between Franklin Avenue and Nostrand Avenue, and would include the clearing away of that unsightly old Kings' County penitentiary, which has got to go some time any way. Moreover, the latter site is convenient for transportation, since the Franklin Avenue and Nostrand Avenue lines connect with all the main arteries of traffic. The east side lands would be served by the Flatbush Avenue line and the Coney Island lines; the latter are at present of little importance for such an institution.
I also agree with Professor Hooper that the Brooklyn college or university which is to be established, should be adequately endowed by private munificence. That is the ideal condition, but I am afraid that we should have to wait too long before it is attained; therefore I am inclined to disagree with Professor Hooper, who is willing to wait. If the city treasury can be reached for this purpose, I am inclined to think that as a second best choice the appeal ought to be made. Nevertheless it is with the utmost reluctance that I would work for the establishment of a city college or university, which would almost surely pass under the control of political parties. If the Mayor of the city should have the power to appoint a Board of Trustees, it seems to me that, to begin with, Trustees should be chosen from the Boards of Poly. and the Adelphia and the Long Island College Hospital, and that after a certain number of years had gone by, the Mayor should be obliged to make a certain number of nominations from among the graduates of the institution. It also seems to me absurd to talk, as Mr. Grout has done, about including Packer and the Brooklyn Insitute, and perhaps the Pratt Institute in this scheme. None of these institutions are colleges or exercise the power of granting degrees. There is comparatively no work done at the Pratt Institute which has any collegiate value; there is scarcely any more work of such value in the scheme of the Brooklyn Institute; and the Packer Institute is chiefly a preparatory school. It has only two years of study which contain work that is collegiate in its character. I found in conversation with Mr. Grout, that his scheme as he himself had pictured it, included wiping out the secondary school work of Adelphi, Packer and Poly. I take that to be a chimerical notion. It would mean blotting about all there is to the Packer out of life, and the effect upon the Poly. would be about the same; - there are only about ninety students in the college work at the Polytechnic, and there are about four hundred and fifty in the preparatory school. As for Adelphi, this property which we hold was given to Adelphi Academy. It has over seven hundred and fifty students in preparatory work alone. It is paying the bills for the college now, and is abundantly able to pay its own way if the college were removed from it. Any proposition which would look to its extinction would meet with a chorus of condemnation from some two thousand people in the city who are its graduates or former students. Mr. Grout however, seemed to think that all the students
in these great private fitting schools should be at once tirned over to the public high schools. Such a notion is crazy.
[marginalia] Inasmuch as this scheme is probably to be pushed, I hope that you will get Mr. Grout's ear, and influence him in the nomination of members of his committee. That committee ought to be well packed with Adelphi and Poly trustees and friends. We should see to it that the consolidated college, if formed, is made by federating Poly & Adelphi as the first move. The new college should be a growth out of the institutions now existing, and not a legislative creation that we must swallow, willy-nilly, just as the politicians make it.
I hope that liberal representation of our own Board maybe secured, & certainly you & I ought to be in the plot from start to finish. You know these politicians very much better than I do. Mr Grout probably means well, but he is not fitted by character or training to become the father of a university.
Yours Very Sincerely
C H Levermore