General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen of the City of New York

(Redirected from Berkeley School For Boys) Educational and cultural association (founded 1785)

United States historic place

Significant dates

General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
New York City Landmark No. 1546

General Society's Library Building

Location	20 W. 44th St., New York, New York
Coordinates	40°45′18″N 73°58′53″W / 40.7551°N 73.9813°W / 40.7551; -73.9813
Website	generalsociety.org
NRHP reference No.	08001048
NYCL No.	1546
Added to NRHP	November 12, 2008
Designated NYCL	October 18, 1988

The General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen of the City of New York is an educational and cultural association at 20 West 44th Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was founded on November 17, 1785, by 22 men who gathered in Walter Heyer's public-house at No. 75 King Street (renamed Pine Street), one block from Wall Street, in Lower Manhattan. The aims of the General Society were to provide cultural, educational and social services to families of skilled craftsmen. The General Society during this early period celebrated the mutuality and centrality of the craft community. Besides its charitable activities, the society played a prominent part in the festivities that marked patriotic holidays, carrying banners emblazoned with its slogan 'By hammer and hand all arts do stand', echoing the motto of the Worshipful Company of Blacksmiths.

The city of New York and the Society both benefited from the decision to make New York the seat of the Federal Government. In 1789, legislators and their assistants and families began to pour into the city. Business prospects brightened considerably. In 1792, the Society attained a membership of 413, and received a charter of incorporation. Old documents reveal that the Society was quite active in the last years of the 18th century, corresponding with other business related associations, and petitioning the state legislature in the interests of industrial progress.

Educational programing

In 1820, The General Society opened one of the city's first free schools. During the early 1800s, New York had no public school system and only two free schools were to be found in the whole city – one in the almshouse, and the other open only to the children of formerly enslaved Black Americans. The new school opened with 70 students. Children of members were admitted free of charge, and a small fee was required from all others. Later that same year the Society added a separate school for girls. The first school, which became the Mechanics Institute in 1858 following the Mechanics' Institute worldwide tradition, continues to provide tuition-free evening instruction in trades-related education. It is the oldest privately endowed tuition-free technical school in the city of New York, with more than 180,000 alumni.

Library

Also founded in 1820, the General Society Library is the second oldest in New York City. The Library's main reading room—which houses The Crouse Library for Publishing Arts—soars to a height of three stories topped by a magnificent skylight. The establishment of the Apprentices' Library put the Society well in the forefront of social reform. Later in the century there would be a great boom in libraries, and much thought would be directed toward public education, but in 1820 such ideas were still new, and the Apprentices' Library was one of the first public libraries in the city of New York. Its aim was to provide good and instructive reading for apprentice boys who worked all day, and had no other access to books and the library therefore kept evening hours.

In 1833, by amendment to its charter, the Society was authorized to increase its usefulness by reserving a portion of its income for the purposes of "promoting and disseminating literary and scientific knowledge," which was determined could be best done by means of lectures, and more recently, through the cultural and educational activities of the New York Center for Independent Publishing. The lecture series, which began in 1837—and continues today—featured such illuminaries as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Ward Beecher, Horace Greeley, Wendell Phillips, and Rear – Admiral Robert E. Peary. Known today as the Labor, Landmarks and Literature Lecture Series, the series continues the Society's long tradition of public lectures.

Individual Society members must have been prospering during these years, too. It was during the 1830s that the French observer Chevalier made this comment about the American mechanic and tradesmen: "He dresses like a member of Congress, and his women-folk dress the same as those of a wealthy New York merchant. His house is warm, neat, and comfortable; his table almost as plentifully provided as that of the wealthiest fellow-citizen."

In 1878, the General Society opened the new Apprentices' Library at its headquarters at No. 18 East 16th Street ("on Sixteenth-street, near Union-square") to house its collection of 60,000 books, mostly "practical works in serviceable bindings" of use to its 8,000 members. These members of the Apprentices' Library included about 4,000 apprentices and 3,000 "girls in shops", along with members of the general public, who paid $2 per year, and General Society members. The building had room for up to 100,000 books and featured an on-site residence for the librarian and janitor.

College scholarships

During the 1840s the Society also provided college scholarships. It was decided that each year two students from Mechanics Institute would attend the University of the City of New York, free of charge. In addition, the society paid to send certain students to other schools.

The library continued to be well patronized during these years, and in 1845, Benjamin DeMilt, a watchmaker and former president of the Society, bequeathed his entire personal library to the Society, adding 1,800 volumes to the collection.

Social reform

The Society continued in its role as a pioneer in social reform by maintaining separate courses for women. In 1887, these classes for young women included stenography and typewriting – a very innovative idea at a time when few women were integrated into the office work force.

In 1861, when the Civil War broke out, the Society placed itself firmly behind the government of Abraham Lincoln. About $8,000 in government bonds were purchased and many Society members enlisted in the New York Volunteer Corps of Engineers.

Location

In 1802, the Society bought a property at 239 Broadway and soon established Mechanics Hall there. In 1831 it moved to 30–36 Crosby Street and in 1843 moved again to the Crosby Street Annex at 472 Broadway. In 1877 it moved yet again to No. 18 Sixteenth Street where it had purchased land and built a new building.

In 1885, the Society celebrated its centennial with a banquet at Delmonico's Restaurant, which was well attended both by Society members and by public officials. The Society's growth continued, and in 1899 the organization moved to its fifth location at 20 West 44th Street.

Between 1899 and 1908, Andrew Carnegie, a Society member, contributed over half a million dollars to the Society. Generous gifts came in from other members as well, and by 1913 attendance at Mechanics Institute had reached 2,300. The curriculum then included such "mechanical age" courses as automobile drafting and industrial electricity.

The fifth home at 20 West 44th Street, across from the Harvard Club of New York City, is a New York City designated landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Originally designed by Lamb and Rich and constructed as the Berkeley School for Boys, the building was acquired by The General Society in 1899. Member and steel magnate Andrew Carnegie provided the funds to significantly expand the building in 1903. In order to accommodate more students, two wings were added to the rear and three new upper stories replaced an original fourth-floor gymnasium. The expansion was designed by Ralph S. Townsend and blends monumental Beaux Arts classicism with Renaissance elements.

Museum

The Society is also home to the John M. Mossman Lock Museum. The Mossman collection represents one of the most complete anthologies of bank and vault locks in the world, with more than 370 locks, keys and tools dating from 4000 BC to the modern 20th-century. The museum is open to the public.

Notable members

Notable General Society members include Duncan Phyfe (furniture maker), James Harper (publisher, 66th mayor of NYC), Peter Cooper (inventor, industrialist), Nathaniel Currier (lithographer), John Bishop Putnam (printer and publisher), Andrew Carnegie (industrialist and philanthropist), Abram S. Hewitt (Glue Manufacturer, 87th mayor of NYC) and former presidents of the society: Stephen Allen (sailmaker, 55th mayor of NYC), Gideon Lee (shoemaker, 61st mayor of NYC), and Jacob Aaron Westervelt (shipbuilder, 72nd mayor of NYC).

References

Explanatory notes

For context, see: List of libraries in 19th-century New York City

Citations

"National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
^ General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen of the City of New York (1895). Manual of the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen of the City of New York, 1895. New York: Lotus Press.
"A New Library Building; Its Opening This Morning. The Apprentices' Library on Sixteenth-street". The New York Times. January 21, 1878. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 13, 2024.
^ Guérin, Polly (2015). The General Society of Mechanics & Tradesmen of the City of New York: A History. Arcadia Publishing. p. 115. ISBN 1-62585-016-6.
"Mossman Lock Collection – the General Society of Mechanics & Tradesmen of the City of New York".

Bibliography

Jackson, Kenneth T., ed. (1995). The Encyclopedia of New York City. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 457. ISBN 0300055366.
Koppel, Lily (September 8, 2006). "Bringing to Light the History of the Laborers Who Built New York City". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
Guérin, Polly (2015). The General Society of Mechanics & Tradesmen of the City of New York: A History. Arcadia Publishing Incorporated. ISBN 978-1-62585-016-4.

External links

Official website

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Midtown (42nd–59th Streets)

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Buildings

West of
5th Av

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East of
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Former

Theaters

Broadway theaters	Ambassador August Wilson Belasco Bernard B. Jacobs Booth Broadhurst Broadway Circle in the Square Ethel Barrymore Eugene O'Neill Gerald Schoenfeld Gershwin Hayes Hudson Imperial James Earl Jones John Golden Lena Horne Longacre Lunt-Fontanne Lyceum Lyric Majestic Marquis Minskoff Music Box Neil Simon Palace Richard Rodgers St. James Samuel J. Friedman Shubert Stephen Sondheim Studio 54 Todd Haimes Walter Kerr Winter Garden
Other venues	55th Street Playhouse Carnegie Hall Ed Sullivan Theater The ImaginAsian New Victory Theater New York City Center Paris Theater Radio City Music Hall Sony Hall The Theater Center The Town Hall York Theatre
Closed/demolished	44th Street 48th Street Apollo Center Capitol Earl Carroll Edison Embassy Fulton George M. Cohan's Loew's State Lyric New Century Olympia Roxy Strand Times Square Victoria Ziegfeld (1927) Ziegfeld (1969)

Hotels

Current

Former

Other points of interest

Restaurants/ nightlife	21 Club 54 Below Alto Anthos Aureole Burger Heaven Le Bernardin Cafe Chambord Campbell Apartment La Caravelle Caviar Russe Del Pezzo Restaurant Ellen's Stardust Diner Four Twenty Five Gabriel Kreuther Gallagher's Steakhouse Grand Central Oyster Bar & Restaurant La Grenouille Iridium Jazz Club Le Jardinier King Cole Bar Kurumazushi Latin Quarter Lespinasse Marea Naro The Pool and the Grill Oceana The Original Soupman P. J. Clarke's Patsy's Le Pavillon Prime Burger The Quilted Giraffe Rainbow Room Restaurant Aquavit Rumpelmayer's Russian Tea Room Sardi's Satsuki Shun Lee Palace Stage Deli The Campbell
Museums/ cultural centers	Austrian Cultural Forum New York Girl Scout Museum and Archives John M. Mossman Lock Museum Korean Cultural Center New York Madame Tussauds New York Museum of Arts and Design Museum of Broadway Museum of Modern Art New York Transit Museum Paley Center for Media Rose Museum Spyscape
Stores	Argosy Book Store Gotham Book Mart
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Clubhouses (former)	Princeton Club of New York
Green spaces	Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden Central Park Grand Army Plaza Greenacre Park Paley Park
Educational institutions	53rd Street Library Circle in the Square Theatre School CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies High School of Performing Arts Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis High School for International Careers Saint Thomas Choir School SUNY College of Optometry
Art galleries	Galerie St. Etienne Rehs Galleries

Transportation

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Railroad stations	Grand Central Madison Grand Central Terminal
Streets and intersections	Third Avenue Fifth Avenue Sixth Avenue Six and a Half Avenue Seventh Avenue Eighth Avenue 42nd 47th 50th 51st 52nd 53rd 54th 55th 57th 59th Broadway Columbus Circle Duffy Square Grand Army Plaza George Abbott Way Lexington Avenue Madison Avenue Park Avenue Park Avenue Viaduct Pershing Square Shubert Alley Times Square Vanderbilt Avenue

Related topics
Billionaires' Row Little Brazil Midtown South Minnesota Strip

See also: Manhattan Community Board 5

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