Opening the Pocket Doors: One Building, Many Uses

When visiting the Center for Brooklyn History today, you enter a vast space that today has been split into various sections. Upon entering, you are immediately greeted by our wonderful Welcome Services team at the front desk, behind which is a segmented wall that showcases upcoming programs. To the left, we have a quaint gift shop. But if you continue into the space, you will see a large room with chairs, tables, and couches. Occasionally, this space will be rearranged for lectures with a small stage and an array of seats. This lecture set up is reminiscent of this room’s original, intended purpose.  

As mentioned in a previous blog post, the founders of the then Long Island Historical Society chose architect George B. Post in a contest to design their permanent home at 128 Pierrepont Street. There were certain aspects of the building they wanted to make sure to include, such as a library, a museum space for their curiosities, and a lecture hall.  

The construction of the lecture hall was somewhat contentious, which you can read about here. Ultimately, those in favor of building the lecture hall won out, and it was included in Post’s plans and constructed with the building, which occurred from 1878 until 1881. Once the building opened in 1881, the Long Island Historical Society was able to then host lectures “of historic and kindred topics” from speakers such as Henry Ward Beecher, Arthur Conan Doyle, Woodrow Wilson, Horace Greeley, Edward Everett Hale, General Henry Slocum, and Julia Ward Howe, to name a few (The Long Island Historical Society, 1863-1938, pgs. 4, 14-16).  

However, despite the best of intentions, these lectures did not last long. Both the New England Society and the Brooklyn Institute began to take on some of these lectures, with Brooklyn Institute eventually taking over the lecture circuit. Reasons for discontinuing the lectures were attributed to the “constantly changing conditions in Brooklyn [that] had affected the interest shown in the Society” (The Long Island Historical Society, 1863-1938, pg. 13).  

But now, what to do with a big, old, empty lecture hall? Somewhere at this time, A.A. Low was probably shaking his head saying, “I told you so” (this is, of course, speculation, but regular readers of Opening the Pocket Doors will remember that Low was against the construction of the lecture hall in the first place, and even resigned his board position over it). However, the lecture hall did not remain dormant for long!  

“During the first World War, the Society gave the American Red Cross the use of the lecture hall after it had been adapted for general use” (The Century Book of the Long Island Historical Society, p. 4). As we can see from this photograph of Red Cross nurses utilizing the space, the lecture hall was changed drastically to fit their needs.  

Once World War I had ended, LIHS was once again left with a vacant lecture hall turned office space, as ever dwindling finances. It was these depleted finances that later “required the Society to seek some source of additional income and in 1926, the lecture hall was remodeled into office rooms and leased, thereby bringing into the funds of the Society a welcome increase in its annual income” (The Long Island Historical Society, 1863-1938, p. 18).  

For example, one of the businesses that rented out space can be seen in this photograph, showcasing a legal group that utilized the space for their offices. Throughout this time, LIHS simultaneously operated mostly has a private library for members in what is today referred to as the Othmer Library.  

LIHS continued to rent out the former lecture hall space from 1926 until 1982 when David Kahn became the Executive Director. In his oral history, Kahn recounts that “people had no idea where the Long Island Historical Society was even though we own the building. And when you tell people, they’d say ‘OH! You’re in the Workbench building!’” This was, of course, referring to the current renters, who had a large sign outside of 128 Pierrepont that read “Workbench” (I’d be curious if any readers remember this business! Please let me know in the comments).  

Of course, David Kahn was adamant that the Long Island Historical Society would become the Brooklyn Historical Society and serve the Brooklyn public, as opposed to continuing to be a closed off society that no one knew existed. Kahn as well as a newly established team of curators and educators ended up reclaiming the space to showcase exhibitions and educate the public, which you can read more about here.  

Today, now that we are part of the Brooklyn Public Library, our great hall is a place that people can come to relax or to even attend one of our fantastic programs!