Department of History

Fieldston School .

Inventing Gotham

Consolidation and the Birth of Greater New York

1609 Henry Hudson sails into NY harbor

1646 Breuckelen (Brooklyn) granted municipal privleges under the Dutch, but one of their officials was subordinate to Sheriff at New Amsterdam

1664 English gain control of NYC; name it "New York"; 18 languages spoken

1665 Brooklyn gets English charter

1816 Brooklyn incorporated as a Village

1827 Brooklyn real estate developers sought to have it join with New York City.

1834 Brooklyn officials asked the state to grant them a city charter, which is granted over New

York City’s objections

A committee of the State legislature proposed a consolidation resolution.

1849 New York City's Common Council passed a resolution to initiate discussions of consolidating with Brooklyn. New York City's Mayor Havermeyer, fearing that it would encourage his citizens to move to Brooklyn, vetoed the measure.

1857 A. Green on Central Park Commission; eventually becomes President and later Controller

NYS Metropolitan Police Act merges police in the NYC, Kings, Richmond and Westchester Counties; Fire Commission added in 1865; Health added in 1866; ended in 1870

1865 Legislature gives Central Park Commission the authority to lay out Manhattan north of 155 St.

Brooklyn absorbs city of Williamsburg (then three years old) and annexes the town of Bushwick

1868 Republican reformer Andrew Haswell Green proposes a Greater New York Commission. Green becomes its president

Report of the Central Park Commission authored by A. Green suggests consolidation of all of Greater NY

1870 Metropolitan Police Act ended

1873 Harlem annexed

Boss Tweed convicted of fraud

1874 Kingsbridge, Morrisania and West Farms annexed. The area would later be known as “the Bronx”

1883 Brooklyn Bridge completed

1889 Andrew Haswell Green proposes referendum on consolidation of incorporated towns including Brooklyn (Kings County)and Queens County

1891 A Green presents his Consolidation Bill to Greater NY Commission; the bill includes geographic boundaries as well as a description of the new city's administration and charter; the Commission sends it to Albany

Consolidation Bill ('91) introduced in both chambers; the bill dies (presumably because it is too inclusive re: administration and charter)

After the defeat of the Consolidation Bill, Green and the Commission decided upon another course: they pressed for a referendum (which would eventually be non-binding and vague so as to be as inoffensive as possible); just getting a referendum bill alone passed would eventualy take three tries!; their arguments were fourfold:

1. To merchants and bankers they argued the benefits and efficiencies of unified a harbor and municipality

2. To Brooklyn real estate interests they argued the benefits of civic improvements (eg., water supply, streets, sewers), lower taxes, public works and debt relief

3. To good government advocates they argued the potential benefits of a rebuilt charter that would have to come with consolidation: ending patronage abuses; widening the talent pool of public officials to include honest, enlightened men from the outer regions, and monitoring only one administration instead of dozens

4. To the voters at large (the poor and anti-socialists in particular) they argued that a unified city would help reduce "poverty, disease, crime and mortality" by relieving crowding in the slums: as Brooklyn became developed and accessible, tenement-dwellers would have access to affordable, safe sanitary housing there; Brooklynites would benefit by the improvements and tax benefits (see #2) hastened by this influx in population

1894 Consolidationists distributed leaflets, sent speakers, enlisted "good government" organizations and newspapers to gain support for consolidation; opposition came from 2 sources: the Brooklyn Eagle (which feared the end of an independent Brooklyn and the influence of Tammany politics in their city) and Tammany Dems; Manhattan real estate interests were divided

Referendum is held; all towns vote in favor except Westchester, Flushing and Mt. Vernon (which asked to be included in the vote); Brooklyn votes for union by only 277 of 129,000 votes!; opponents charged that many voters who thought they were voting for constitutional reforms had accidentally voted for consolidation; strongest support for consolidation in Manhattan and Brooklyn came from wealthy and middle-income, native-born, German-Americans, and the better-off German and Irish immigrants; pro vote was high in parts of Brooklyn that needed improvements, and low in "jealous" parts of NYC that were seeking similar improvements; the poorest districts in both cities rejected consolidation due to Democratic opposition to the new constitution and despite the prospect of better, cheaper living conditions

Anti-consolidation Brooklyn League of Loyal Citizens (let's call them the BLLC) formed by leading (Protestant) cultural and religous leaders with intent to set aside results of first referendum and hold another ("resubmission"); William Redfield was president; Brooklyn’s Protestant-led opposition slowed the drive for consolidation but because it was non-inclusive, did not develop a wide or diverse support base (Brooklyn was only about 60% Protestant); this slowing of the consolidation momentum eventually provided an opening to politicians who feared the political shake-up that would result from the union; anti-consolidationists argued the following points:

1. Consolidation would not lower Brooklyn’s taxes because NYC was already committed to a number of costly projects which, when added to Brooklyn’s needs, would boost the current rates

2. Union with NYC would overrun Brooklyn with slums filled with alien, impoverished, criminal newcomers

3. Union would destroy Brooklyn’s cherished middle-class, Protestant way of life – a moral and quiet place filled with homes, churches, clubs, cultural institutions

4. Meddling by non-Brooklynites would ruin the city’s cherished school system

1895 Riverdale and the rest of the Bronx west of the Bronx River annexed

1897 New City Charter submitted to legislature; the Charter Commission report that would accompany the charter was signed by the all Commissioners except A. Green who was too ill to have participated in the construction of the charter; the charter protected Brooklyn interests by: providing for equal taxes and assessments, exempting Brooklyn landowners from taxation for the first six months, adopting a borough form of local government (with borough presidents), and preserving the borough’s cherished independent school system; the charter created a slightly modified version of the "strong mayor" design that had already existed in NYC and Brooklyn; it ignored some new reform improvements, but preserved many existing ones; the charter shifted much control over the new city’s physical development, planning and improvement from the state to the city government; all in all the new charter satisfied most interests, but was still very flawed

CONSOLIDATION DAY (Dec 31):

- Crowd of 50,000 complete with band, fireworks, singers marched down Broadway to City Hall park; two minutes before midnight whistles blow; San Francisco Mayor raises flag via long distance electric switch; church bells ring; 100 guns saluted. In Brooklyn there was a reception with six former mayors and a celebration. In LIC the Mayor conducted business as usual and Board of Aldermen was in session until midnight; no formal celebrations held.

1898 Consolidation and the creation of Greater New York City

The following facts provide a snapshot of life in Greater New York after consolidation:

* In 1898, the population of New York City was 3,350,000 — it has since more than doubled

* New York City was 360 square miles in 1898 — it is now 321.8 square miles

* After consolidation, New York became the second largest city in the world behind London

* There were 56 cities and towns within New York City and 1,150 churches in 1898

* There were 2,000 farms in the city

* The tallest building in the city was 23 stories — the tallest building today is 110 stories

* Thirty percent of New Yorkers were foreign born, seven percent of New Yorkers were illiterate

* Almost 50 percent of all the immigrants in the city were from Germany and Ireland

* To qualify as a juror, a New Yorker had to be male between the ages of 21 and 70 and own $250 worth of property

* Electric taxicabs were introduced in New York City in 1897 and 100 were operating by 1898

* A cab ride in Manhattan cost 50 cents for the first mile, and 25 cents each additional half mile or portion thereof

* The nation's first automobile accident occurred in New York City in 1897 The nation's first auto fatality occurred three years later, at Central Park West and 74th Street

* The city speed limit was nine miles per hour

* A total of 7,428 people were employed by the Police Department in 1899; 38,000 in 1996

* 138,875 arrests were made in 1899; 363,471 arrests were made in 1996

* There were 473 school buildings in 1899 and of the nearly half million students enrolled in public schools, approximately 15,000 moved beyond the eighth grade.

* Over one and a half million New Yorkers lived in slums by the turn of the century

* City employees worked ten hours a day

* 1,333 people were arrested for gambling in 1899

* The city raked in $38,000 by issuing permits for masked balls in 1899

* Street cars were converted to electricity in 1901

* In 1898, 100,000 Brooklyn residents commuted each day to Manhattan

* At the victory celebration of the first mayor after consolidation, spectators chanted: "To Hell with Reform"

* At the time of consolidation, New York City had a bicameral legislature called the Municipal Assembly, consisting of the Board of Alderman and the City Council.

Web Resources:

Facts of Life in Greater New York :<http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/misc/html/1998/nycfacts.html>

NYC 100: < http://www.nytimes.com/specials/nyc100/contents.html>

The City of Greater New York: < http://www.mcny.org/GNY/script.htm>