The Brooklyn Daily Eagle from Brooklyn, New York • Page 28

BROOKLYN EAGLE, FRIDAY, MAY 31, 1940 H. Carpenter Fought Against 'L' 26 Years Veteran Civic Leader Is One of 18 Alive Out of 100 Who Organized Group in 1914 Twenty-six years ago, 100 of Brooklyn's most prominent men met and organized to work for the replacement of the ugly Fulton St. Elevated structure with a subway. Today, with victory imminent on removal of the elevated, 82 of the original members of the Fulton St. Protective League have passed on.

BEFORE THE ELEVATED came to sprawl along Fulton the Borough Hall section looked as it does in this early photograph, taken in the vicinity of 1880. The first trolley trocks, ballasted like a railroad, can be seen in the center of the street. Fulton St. Was Last Word In Progress at '88 Opening B. Chittenden, Benjamin F.

Tracy and Alexander B. Powell. But the project never was consummated. The length of the road was to be over five miles and its Event Climaxed Hectic Series Of Transit Victories and Defeats Every station on the new Fulton St. Elevated Line was Jammed with Jubilant, top-hatted gentlemen and bebustled ladies who wildly waved flags and shouted "Hip! Hip! Hoo-rayl" when the round-bellied boiler with a stovepipe belching smoke drew its first train of flimsy wooden cars up from Fulton Ferry in the bright sunshine of April 24, 1888.

Three years earlier, in the Fall of Lender of the 18 stanch survi vors who have lived to see their goal accomplished is Herbert L. Carpenter, president of the league and chairman of the Mayor's Committees on Elevated Removal and Subway Completion. Brimming with the enthusiasm of youth, although he just has turned 60, Mr. Carpenter has gained the reputation of being "chairman of more things in Brooklyn" than any other borough man. Has Wide ActiviUes His activities Include not only the presidency of the firm he founded in 1923, the large Carpenter Container Corporation, but the presidencies of the Associated Civic Associations, embracing most groups of the kind In the borough, and the State-wide Taxpayers' Federation.

Among other outstanding posts he has held was that of assistant to Stewart McDonald, Federal Housing Ad ministrator in the early "30s. Government, industrial, labor and civic leaders gave him a testimonial dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria in 1936 in recognition of his long years in the service of the public. Praised by LaGoardia On this occasion Mayor LaGuar-dia praised him, saying: "This has been a long fight, and many times every one has become discouraged. But then good old Herb Carpenter would cheer us up and keep the ball rolling." A little known fact about Mr. Carpenter is that he has expe-d many thousands of dollars of his own money for legal fees and other expenses in the long fight for dem olition of the Fulton St.

elevated. First Jab as Messenger Mr. Carpenter, who comes of old New England stock, was born and educated in the public and technical schools of Brooklyn. His first job was as a messenger boy for a BrocSJyn builder. With an electrical and mechanical education, he Joined the installation department of the New York Telephone Company in 1898 and rose rapidly through its vari- GALA OPENING of service on 1888.

as observed by an artist spectators are hailing what was IMS, ground Had Men Orocen Al the corner of Fulton St. and Red Hook Lane for the Kings County Elevated Railroad Company's line from the ferry and Brooklyn Bridge through Fulton St. out to Nostrand Avenue. The Fulton St. line was not, however, the borough's first elevated railroad.

Nearly a year before construction was started, the first rail of the present Broadway line had been laid, in January. 1885, by a rival corporation, the Brooklyn Elevated Railroad Company, and by May 13 of that year the first five miles of this road was placed In operation. Halle With Enthaslasaa Mayor Low, then Brooklyn's Chief Magistrate, participated in the opening ceremonies, and Brooklyn-ites hailed the first rapid transit line here with great enthusiasm. The route, as it began operation, was from York and Washington Sts. along York to Hudson along Hudson to Park along Park to Grand along Grand to Lexington along Lexington to Broadway and along Broadway to East New York.

Still another pioneer rapid transit project in Brooklyn was that of a third corporation, the Union Elevated Railroad Company. Organized In 1886, it proceeded to build lines which as soon as completed were leased for operation to the Brooklyn Elevated Company. The first line opened was the Hudson Ave. branch, running from the Long Island Railroad terminal at Flat-hush Ave. through Flatbush and Hudson Aves.

and connecting with the line of the Brooklyn Elevated from Park Ave. to Fulton Ferry. It was over this line that the T.nri T.lanrt HUmA nnce ran its trains from Flatbush Ave. to the ferry and across Brooklyn Bridge to City Hall. The colorful history of the rapid transit movement is best told in a book, now out of print, entitled "Fifty Years of Rapid by James Blaine Walker Sr, former secretary of the Rapid Transit Commission.

Rapid transit development in the borough, Mr. Walker asserts, naturally followed the successful operation of elevated railroads across the river in Manhattan, although several years elapsed before the growth of Brooklyn reached a point which demanded better and quicker transportation than was afforded by the horse car lines. Demand Became Insistent By 1870 Brooklyn had grown to a city of 400,000, and the demand for rapid transit became insistent. It had been met partially by the Long Island Railroad and other steam roads leading to Coney Island, but aside from Manhattan no real means of rapid transit existed. First to attempt a more satisfac tory fulfilment of the demand was the Brooklyn Steam Transit Com pany, chartered In May, 1870, for the purpose of building an elevated railroad from the East River to Flatbush.

The names of many men then and afterward famous in the bor ough's civic life were included the list of incorporators. Famous Incorporators Among them were Samuel McLean, Seymour Husted, Henry E. Pierrepont, Alfred S. Barnes, A. A.

Low, Archibald M. Bliss, Jacob I. Bergen, Cyrus Smith, John Lef-ferts, William C. Kingsley, Simeon Herbert L. Carpenter ous departments.

He was intimately associated with the development and installation of many of its important exchanges and the complicated national system installed in the New York Stock Exchange. He was granted his first patent on telephone apparatus. Established Marine Lines In 1903 Mr. Carpenter visited the Boer prison camps in the Bermuda Islands and assisted British Army engineers in establishing early marine telephone communication. On a later extended foreign trip became interested in foreign automotive manufacture.

In 1911, he first became interested in the city rapid transit plans, an Interest which he has continued with increasing influence until the present. Mr. Carpenter first entered private business in 1912 in the auto- Continned on Page 25 the Fulton St. Elevated Line in of the period. The dignified then the fast word in progress.

cost more than $5,000,000. The panic of 1873 made financing even more difficult, and although the company had broken ground to be gin work on June 1, 1878, the Court of Appeals ruled in 1879 that it had forfeited its charter by failure to build within the specified time. During the same period the cor poration destined to operate the first elevated railroad in Brooklyn was organised. Planned 'Silent' Road This, the Brooklyn Elevated Company, was chartered in 1874 with $5,000,000 capital to build a "silent, safety" road from the end of the proposed Brooklyn Bridge, then just started and to open in 1883. to Woodhaven In Queens, through several Brooklyn streets and Fulton East New York.

It also was to have a branch to Fulton Ferry. Bteam engines were to be used for motive power, the charter provided, but they must not emit smoke or cinders and the noise must be lessened by suitable silencers. Ironically, these evils were the very essence of the operation which followed. Incorporators included Jacob Cole, Cornelius B. Payne, John H.

Burtis, Abraham Lott, B. F. Clayton, John L. Nostrand, Job Johnson, Florian Grosjean, Jdhn Q. Kellogg and Joseph H.

Bridges. Series of Up and Downs Burtis was elected president and Kellogg secretary. Then followed a series of ups and down, victories and tragedies such as marked similar projects in Manhattan. There was the pitiful story of Q. Kirkup, an English engineer, who devoted two years to drawing plans and soliciting funds for the road, only to die in extreme poverty.

The directors quarreled and Burtis resigned as president. Finally they employed a promoter named hi beck, whose usual method of stimulating Interest in the enterprise was to open a mass meeting with a prayer. Grant Vetoed by Mayor In May, 1870, Burtis was reelected and the Common Council approved a resolution permitting the company to change its route to pass through Wllloughby Gold DeKalb Grand Lexington Ave. and Broadway. This drew forth a storm of protest, led by such men as the Rev.

T. DeWitt Ta Image, which resulted In the veto of the grant by Mayor Schroeder. On May 24, 1878, ground was broken at the corner of Reld and Lexington Aves. for construction of Continued an Page 1888 Fulton St. Progress 1940 BROOKLYN EAGLE A Special Section EDITED IY DAVID ROBINSON GEORGE hmrj $imulumotuly with ctmtion of lervice en the Fullom ft.

Xlfltd Lint an4 in anticipation of if early demolition..