Brooklyn: Atlantic Avenue - Clinton Street

Atlantic Ave., at the N.E. corner of Clinton Street showing the Brooklyn Athenaeum designed by William Field and erected at a cost of $60,000. The first floor was for commercial enterprises; the second for reading and for private rooms, the third floor had a concert hall capable of seating 2000 people. It gave the first Italian Opera in 1858. The Philharmonic Society held its first concert here. The Reading Room was opened to the public on May 7, 1858. The Mercantile Library was here but later moved to Montague Street. John Homsey purchased it in 1922. In 1929 it housed the Court of Special Sessions.
1922.
Eugene L. Armbruster Collection.