The Thomas Jefferson Association Building was a building located in

Brooklyn Heights Brooklyn Heights is a residential neighborhood within the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Old Fulton Street near the Brooklyn Bridge on the north, Cadman Plaza West on the east, Atlantic Avenue on the south ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

. Designed by Brooklyn-based architect Frank Freeman and completed in 1890, it was considered a fine example of the

Richardsonian Romanesque Richardsonian Romanesque is a architectural style, style of Romanesque Revival architecture named after the American architect Henry Hobson Richardson (1838–1886). The revivalism (architecture), revival style incorporates 11th- and 12th-century ...

style. The building was demolished to make way for a new thoroughfare in 1960.

History

The building was constructed as the result of an 1888 decision by the Kings County branch of the Democratic Party to secure a permanent headquarters for its operations, with the development of the

political club The political club is a membership based organization. Membership of a political club is an outward show of political allegiance. Victorian England In the Victorian era the political club was synonymous with a political party. Parliamentarians t ...

model. A new organization, known as the Thomas Jefferson Association, was formed for the purpose, with a paid-up capital of $150,000, half of which was contributed by leading members of the Party and the other half by members of the ward association. The plan was to construct a seven-story building, with the first two floors reserved for Party activities and the remaining five floors rented out as office space, income from which would be returned to the Jefferson Association's members as dividends. A property near the corner of Boerum Place and Fulton Street was acquired for the project, and architect Frank Freeman commissioned to design the building. The foundation stone was laid on November 13, 1889 by former U.S. President

Grover Cleveland Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was the 22nd and 24th president of the United States, serving from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. He was the first U.S. president to serve nonconsecutive terms and the first Hist ...

, with torrential rains failing to dampen the enthusiasm of a large crowd gathered to witness the occasion. The building was formally opened less than a year later on September 23, 1890, with many Democratic Party dignitaries in attendance, including the

Governor of New York The governor of New York is the head of government of the U.S. state of New York. The governor is the head of the executive branch of New York's state government and the commander-in-chief of the state's military forces. The governor ...

David B. Hill David Bennett Hill (August 29, 1843October 20, 1910) was an American politician from New York who was the 29th governor of New York from 1885 to 1891 and represented New York in the United States Senate from 1892 to 1897. In 1892, he made an un ...

and Brooklyn Mayor Alfred C. Chapin. The cost of the building was in excess of $100,000. The building remained the headquarters of the Kings County Democrats until 1951, when increasing maintenance costs persuaded the owners to sell it. In 1960, it was demolished along with fourteen other buildings to make way for Adams Street, an arterial link between the

Brooklyn Bridge The Brooklyn Bridge is a cable-stayed suspension bridge in New York City, spanning the East River between the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Opened on May 24, 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was the first fixed crossing of the East River. It w ...

and Atlantic Avenue.

Description

The "highly creative", "extremely ornamented" building was completed in Freeman's signature

style.Morrone and Iska, p. 44. A correspondent for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' described the building as:

... one of the most peculiar-looking structures in the city. The architecture is of the Romanesque order, the building being eight stories in height, with huge brick and
terra cotta Terracotta, also known as terra cotta or terra-cotta (; ; ), is a clay-based Vitrification#Ceramics, non-vitreous ceramicOED, "Terracotta""Terracotta" MFA Boston, "Cameo" database fired at relatively low temperatures. It is therefore a term used ...
pillars up front. The windows are broad and very high, the effect being to cause the building to have a very light and yet, from its height, a decidedly top-heavy appearance ... The hall has seats for about nine hundred people, and is very cozy in its appearance. The woodwork is polished
oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...
, and the walls and high-vaulted ceiling have been finished in buff paint, with dark
fresco Fresco ( or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting become ...
work as a relief. Electric lights are used entirely.

The ground floor, which was built of rusticated

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

from

Gatelawbridge Gatelawbridge is a hamlet in the region of Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. It is situated two and a half miles east of Thornhill and near the gorge Crichope Linn. The origin of the name is unknown though in the past the locals called it Gateley ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

,Howard and Jervis, p. 444. featured two large, recessed Roman archways, one on each wing, which served as the main entrances. The upper stories of the facade were constructed of moulded brick and terra cotta. At the top of the building was an "enormous" bust of

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (, 1743July 4, 1826) was an American Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was the primary author of the United States Declaration of Indepe ...

, set in an alcove.Dutton, p. 20. Inside, the first floor was taken up almost entirely by the Democratic Party hall, which included a stage, along with offices for the Party's General Committee. The second floor included the permanent offices of the Party Secretary and assistants. A restaurant occupied the basement, with the rest of the building given over to office space.

References

Bibliography

* Dutton, Richard L. (2004): ''Brooklyn: The Brooklyn Daily Eagle Postcards, 1905–1907'', Arcadia Publishing, . * Howard, Henry W. B.; Jervis, Arthur N. (1893): ''The Eagle and Brooklyn: The Record of the Progress of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle'', Volume 1, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. * Morrone, Francis; Iska, James (2001): ''An Architectural Guidebook to Brooklyn'', Gibbs Smith, . {{coord, 40.693702, -73.990383, type:landmark_globe:earth_region:US-NY, display=title Office buildings completed in 1890 Frank Freeman buildings Office buildings in New York City Demolished buildings and structures in Brooklyn Richardsonian Romanesque architecture in New York City Commercial buildings in Brooklyn Brooklyn Heights New York State Democratic Committee Democratic Party (United States) organizations

History

Description

See also

References

Bibliography