Times Union from Brooklyn, New York • 18

i i i i i a Za SUNDAY THE BROOKLYN DAILY TIMES MAY 21, 1922 WORLD'S LONGEST STREET OF STORES Broadway, the Great Merchants' Economy Row of Brooklyn, Has Rare Distinction Among the Thoroughfares of Trade. Brooklyn has the longest Street of Stores in the, world, It is Broadway, the Economy Row of Shops, whose thousands of merchants are calling attention this week to its advantages. There are longer streets in this and other cities than Broadway, although they are not many. There are streets in which for a short distance the store display is greater, but not many. There is no street here or anywhere which for such: a long accommodates stores on each side of the roadway.

That is one of the distinctions of Brooklyn's Broadway. It shares its accommodations very little with anything except retail busness. It is there to do business with the ultimate consumer. It is there to sell the women in the next block all she needs for the person or the home. It is there to have its larger stores the mart for buyers from Bay Ridge on one side and Flushing on the other, to send its delivery wagons all over two boroughs.

There are eight miles of Broadway which contain store after store, little stores and big stores, stores in which every conceivable commodity is sold. This is its boom Week," the merchants designate it--but every week is boom week in Broadway and every day is boom day. The object of "Boomerang Week" is less to advertise for seven days than to show the people of this community that there is such a thoroughfare and that it is alive and flourishing. This week's activities are designed to let the merchants of two thousand shops get together and work together for the advantage of all. They are to show the value of co-operation.

There is no street in the world whose merchants are of older establishments than the merchants of Broadway. The big stores of that great thoroughfare have been serving the public of several generations. They are known for their probity and their capability. Yet their managers do not look backward, but forward. "The past of our house," said Charles A.

Gorman, of Batterman's Oh, we are proud of our past. It is what we build on. It is a yes, record that keeps us in the right line. It is well to know that people have always been well treated by this store. "But it is on the future of the house and the future of the street that we have concentrated our We want a future that will make the past look sick.

And we want it not only for this concern, but for every concern on Broadway--we want it for the street. "We can make that kind of a future, too. Just think a minute. There is scarcely a big house in our Economy thoroughfare That does not, through ownership and leasehold, have an advantage that tells in the price. Our capital charges and overhead are small and we can put the saving into the pockets of our patrons." That is the way the Broadway merchants look at the future.

They are working together. J. D. Wilson, of J. D.

Wilson Sons, an American merchant of the type of A. T. Stewart, runs one of the greatest stores in Williamsburgh. He sits at his desk, a cheerful man, and thinks- of his neighbors. "I do not regard the men who sell goods on Broadway as competitors," he said.

"I never did. To me they are fellow workers. We have a common interest our big street. We sell goods to the public together, and it is our business to see that the public gets what it wants. This goes for the million of people in this section who patronize the stores of And Walter Chestnut, of Shellas Chestnut, the big furniture store, looks over a warcroom that has all the furniture the heart might desire, and talks out briskly in the same key.

"We have the biggest street in the most' crowded and yet most prosperous bit of city in the world," he says. "Every car line crosses Broadway at some point, and it is the direct highway to Jamaica. That is the reason you see that crowd out there in the show But we want bigger crowds, and our prices and our location give us a right to expect That is the way Broadway talks. It looks as it talks. Any afternoon, and particularly any afternoon this fine weather, will show Broadway crowded with shoppers, all eagereyed and interested in the windows.

It will show the shops, large and small, each with its salesmen and saleswomen and its customers. Here and there is a theatre or a bank, but they are few and far between. It is the stores that attract attention, store after store stretching in a row from the ferry to East New York. Great stores and small, but all well tended, all with modern window dressings, all attractive. What contributes to the mighty stream of customers that furnishes business for all these stores? Broadway is a thoroughfare that traverses a section of Brooklyn in which there are a million of people.

The elevated railroad brings it into touch with Jamaica and Queens. From all parts of Brooklyn car lines run in on it. There is the Myrtle avenue for one. Then there are the Graham avenue, the Flushing avenue, the Metropolitan, the Reid avenue, the Lorimer street and the Franklin avenue. It is as easy to get from East New York and Flatbush to Broadway as it is to get to any section.

The booming of Broadway is a good sign for the whole of Brooklyn. The modern idea of city planning contemplates a community in which there will be no necrotic spots. It contemplates a community' all alive. Shifts and changes in population, new improvements and methods of transportation have made dead spots in many parts of Brooklyn. Broadway, through the enterprise of her merchants, has kept its section of Brooklyn alive and wholesome.

It has adapted itself to the vital statistics. It has accommodated all the growth changes and all the population shifts. It is still Broadway, the Street of Stores, Economy Row. Brooklyn is one of the richest post office districts in the country. It feeds the whole postal system and makes it possible for Uncle Sam to carry mail from the Atlantic to the Pacific for two cents.

On Broadway is located. that largest post office station in Brooklyn. It. is Station at Broadway and South Eighth street. As Mr.

Burton says in his article, "the gross receipts of Station during stations 1921 of the were $390,335.93, the largest of any of the twenty-six Brooklyn Post Broadway traverses extends from the ferry at Kent avenue to Jamaica the avenue. former It Bushwick portions of the old village of Williamsburgh, towns of and Flatbush (later created into the Town of New Lots) and the old City of Brooklyn. It includes within its lines portions of South Sixth street and South Seventh Division street and also the street commonly called Division street or avenue. The portion of Broadway beginning at South Sixth street, in Williamsburgh, at or near the boundary line of the City of Brooklyn, was Division authorized avenue by to be Chapter laid out, 59 of opened, graded and turnpiked 88 the Laws of 1850, and the center of the avenue was declared to be a new boundary line separating Brooklyn from Williamsburgh, Bushwick and Flatbush. The streets laid out on the Brooklyn map of 1839 were continued to meet the new street.

The Mayor of Brooklyn, the President of the Village of Williamsburgh and the Supervisor of the Town of Bushwick were appointed a Board of Commissioners to carry the ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE. 11 1 END ON St. John's College, Lewis and Willoughby avenues, was founded in 1865 by the Right Rev. John Loughlin, first Bishop of Brooklyn, who invited the priests of the congregation to establish college for boys in this city.

The invitation was formally accepted in when the Very Rev. S. V. Ryan, C. decided to take steps to procure a site for the college.

Cornelius Dever was authorized to purchase the plot where the college now stands, and in 1869 the building was begun from designs furnished by P. C. Keely. The edifice was completed in 1870. On September 4 of that year the first public lecture was given in the College Hall by a distingulshed convert, Orestes A.

Brownson. On the following day, September 5, the college was formally opened. Very Rev. J. W.

Moore, C. is now president of the institution. improvements into effect. Questions of law relative to this proceding had arisen and it became necessary to enact Chapter 385 of the Laws of 1854, Chapter 483 of the Laws of 1855 and Chapter 751 of the Laws of 1857, providing for the completion of the original opening and grading and also authorizing the pavement of the avenue. After its completion the avenue was to be known as and called Broadway.

This proceeding was confirmed by the court on March 10, 1857. The remainder of the street from Division avenue or way as aforesaid was provided for by Chapter 335 of the Laws of 1861 and Chapter 379 of the Laws of 1863, authorizing the widening of South Sixth street from 60 feet to 80 feet between Division avenue and Fourth street (now Bedford avenue) and the widening of South Seventh street from 60 feet to 100 feet between Fourth street (now Bedford avenue) and First street (now Kent avenue). The widened streets were designated by the name of way, making it the continuous thoroughfare as it exists today. The widening was confirmed by the court on January 28, 1865, and, although the law provided for the changing of the name of. the streets, the Common Council of the City of Brookyln also adopted resolutions on January 27, 1868, making Broadwaty the new street.

Small portions of South Sixth street and South Eighth street were subsequently named Broadway, the former by resolution of the Common Council of Brooklyn on May 21, 1888, and the latter by resolution of the Board of Aldermen of the City of New York on April 17, 1917. The original portions of South Sixth street and South Seventh street were acquired by proceedings instituted by the trustees of the Village of Williamsburgh, the assessments therefore being firmed on November 28, 1834, and September 16, .1837. The southerly end of Broadway and. Jamaica avenue (formerly Jamaica plank road) was a part of Howard's woods, and Howard Tavern, built about 1700, was a famous meeting during the Colonial times. It was here that the British, during the battle of Long Island, seized Howard and his son in order to secure guidance to the Gowanus.

At its northerly end, in 1836, Peck Slip ferry was established, running from South Seventh street to Peck Slip, New York, and the Division Street ferry to Grand street, New York, was established there in 1851 During the village period the streets subsequently included in Broadway were traveled by stage coaches. This form of transit existed until about 1860, when the Broadway Railroad Company, chartered August 20, 1858, and authorized by Chapter 303 of the Laws of 1858, built a horse car line, extending the whole length of Broadway to East New York. Motive power on this line was authorized by the Common Council of Brooklyn on July 17, 1893. The acquisition and improvement of Broadway aroused strenuous opposition. In large public undertakings the local people are generally governed by their own selfish ends, although in time they reap the larger benefits.

The very men who opposed this improvement became rich through it. In 1868 the taxable values had increased tremendously and it is stated that a plot purchased by the Williamsburgh Bank at Broadway and Driggs avenue at a price exceeding 000 could have been bought before the improvement for $20,000. The farms along the entire length of the improvement were gradually mapped and laid out into building plots. Home owners became interested and there is no section of the borough where so many of the descendants of the original settlers remain. Their thrift is evidenced from the beginning by the establishment of at least three savings banks on Broadway prior to the same year that Batterman established his first business enterprise on Broadway at Ewen street (now Manhattan avenue).

Broadway became to the Eastern District what Fulton street was to the Western District- -its main street. The old Kyckout road in Williamsburgh, the Brooklyn and Newtown turnpike, the Brooklyn and Jamaica turnpike, all tapping this section in early times, have gradually disappeared. Bushwick and Brooklyn all unite with Broadway, making it one Today the wisely planned street, systems of Williamsburgh, of the borough's most valuable and important arteries of travel and business. HALF A CENTURY AT ST THOMAS' Episcopal Church Preparing to Celebrate Its Fiftieth Anniversary by Clearing Mortgage. St.

Thomas' Church was organized fifty years ago in a little house at the corner of Hooper street and Wyckoff avenue. With twelve pupils in the Sunday School, the devoted church folks built a little frame church. It was at Bushwick avenue and Hooper street. Fram these humble beginnings the present St. Thomas' Church has grown until today its splendid plant includes a church, parish house and rectory, with some adjacent property valued at a $175,000.

Numerically it is the second largest Episcopal church in the diocese, with over 1,300 communicant members and the largest Episcopal School on Island, numbering now 700 children. Fifty years has wrought this wonchange and now, with the tender memories of" the 'years and friends that are go St. Thomas is preparing to celebrate, in proper fashion, her half life on June 11. The motto of the fortieth anniversary, which was celebrated in 1912, was "A Forty Thousand Dollar Church." In 1915 that new church was fully realized. The motto of the fiftieth anniversary is, "The Entire Mortgage Paid and if all goes well this big project will be realized.

Already the parish has $17,000 in the last eighteen months and another two thousand is covered by pledges from parishioners. Of the original $25,000 mortgage, there remains now only $6,000 to be raised by June. St. Thomas' people have done some things in the years that are gone and will not fail now. In the past ten years the parish has given, in addition to current expenses and outside benevolence, the sum of $62.000 for parish enlargement and payment of mortgage.

"The Last Six Thousand" will the church completely out of debt and make the consecration the church possible in the very near future. For this reason every friend and member of the church is interested in seeing this fund subscribed to at once. The committee which is preparing for the jubilee celebration represents every parish organization and is as follows: Honorary Members Mrs. Fanny E. Scharfenberg, John J.

Winterbottom. Vestry--George B. Goodwin, Leonard Stock, Porter C. Savage. St.

Thomas' Guild--Mrs. J. W. Carty, Mrs. Sarah Beatty, Mrs.

William Leggo: C. C. F. Chapter-Mra. Emma L.

Lessir, Mrs. Carl- Maisel, Mrs. A. F. Coppins.

Daughters of the King--Mrs. E. W. Jeffers, Mrs. Florence Johnston, Mrs.

Helen Cucuel, Mrs. E. A. Jeffers, Miss Frances Smith. Brotherhood of St.

Andrew- Willlam F. Leggo, William Alschewsky, Howard Cashmore. St. Thomas' Forum- -John C. Hutchson, William Woessner, J.

M. Fawcett. Church School--H. H. Hamilton, Gernet Sullivan, Mra.

Belle M. Jackson. Choir -W. C. Hardy, Mrs.

Alice Benedict, Miss A. B. Conley. Scouts Clarence Hitchcock, John Briggs, Frank Stebley, Altar Guild- Catherine Stone, Mrs. G.

C. Piercy, Mrs. Emma L. Gibson. General Congregation- Joseph E.

Humbert. SHELLAS AND CHESNUTT. all FURNITURE WAS CARPETS RUGS DE A ONE OF THE LARGEST FURNITURE STORICS IN BROOKLYN AT BROADWAY AND GREENE AVENUE, BROADWAY STARTS GREAT CITY BANK M'f'ct'rs Trust Co. Merger Completes Institution Started on Brooklyn's "Economy Row." The Manufacturers' Trust Company, which by virtue of merging the North Side Bank into that Institution on April 28, 1922, became the largest commercial banking institution in the history of Brooklyn, was organized as the Citizens' Trust Company, September 11, 1905, at 774 Broadway, main of the institution is still corner officer Sumner avenue, where the located. Nathan S.

Jonas was elected president, and James H. Conroy, secretary of the company, which was capitalized at $500,000 and had a paid in surplus of $126,000. The company excellent progress, July 1, 1912, it absorbed the Broadway Bank, slightly increasing than deposits from. more $2.000,000 to about $6,000,000. At time the capital of the bank was increased to $1,000,000.

Just at the outbreak of the European War, on August 1, 1914, the Citizens' Trust Company took over the National 1o- cated at 84 Broadway, Brooklyn, with approximately the same amount of leposits then held by the Citizens' Trust Company, makipg the new deposits over $12,000,000. The name of RELIGIOUS LIFE OF WILLIAMSBURGH Great Great Churches Inculcate Moral Lessons in the Sections Served by B'way Stores. The religious life of Willlamsburgh has always been a strong factor. Early in the history of the settlement the churches were Important. They have grOWn innumber and influence with the growth of the section.

Likewise those of Bushwick and upper Broadway have become important. Today Bushwick and Ridgewood turn out a Sunday School anniversary parade of more than eighty-five thousand marchers. In a gone generation there were giants in the pulpits of the section. Dr. John F.

Carson first started there. Dr. Moore was another celebrated preacher. In St. Peter and Paul's the Rev.

Dr. Malone was a famous priest, occupying In Civil War times something like the position in the esteem of the community. now held by Monsignor O'Hare, Dr. Darlington, later Bishop, was for a long time rector of Christ's Church on Bedford avenue. district Today the churches of the Broadway are more numerous and inportant than ever.

The lot of churches ic imposing. The Baptists have On the section the Bushwick aveane, ship membership 100, the First in Williamsburgh, the 600; Greene Avenue, 1100; Holy Trinity, 865; the First German, 350; McDonough Street, 119; Marcy ave nue, 1000; Mt. Lebanon, 258: Second German, 210; Summer Avenue, 100; Union, 250; Williamsburgh, 195. Five thousand and seventy-seven Baptists are enrolled in the churches. The Congregational Church 'bas the "the Bushwick Avenue, membership 1400; the Lewis Avenue, 889; the Puritan Chapel 500; St.

Mark's, 350; Willoughby, LEE AVENUE SABBATH SCHOOL HALL COTTAGE IN WHICH LEE AVENUE SABBATH SCHOOL WAS ORGANIZE the bank was changed to the Manufacturers-Citizens' Trust Company at this time, but in 1915 the word Citizens was dropped from the corporate name, the institution becoming as the Manufacturers' Trust Company. Followed then a further period of prosperity for the company and on June 15, 1918, the bank extended its. field of operation into the Borough of Manhattan, by: purchasing control the West Side Bank, looted at 481 fourth Eighth avenue, corner of Thirtystreet, with deposits, exceeding $4,000,000, which, added to the more than $15,000,000 already on deposit, gave the Manufacturers' Trust Company total deposits of $19,500,000. Like the Manufacturers' National Bank, the West Side Bank in business for very nearly fifty years be-fore being merged with the Manufacturers' Trust Company, each having served their local neighborhoods creditably for half a century. After this merger the business of the company grew steadily and in Jan uary, 1920, the capital was increased to $2,000,000 and $1,000,000 was added to the surplus, making the capital and surplus more than $4,000,000.

The operations of the Manufacturers' Trust Company were further extended In Manhattan by establishing in the heart of the financial district, at 139 Broadway, On September 1, 1921, the Manufac. turers' Trust Company merged into it the Ridgewood National Bank, which opened up still another borough to that progressive institution, when the capital was increased by another half inillion, capital and the surplus likewise, Ing und and surplus of $5,000,000, deposits of $10,000,000. After the Inerger with the North Side Bank the deposits mounted to $50,000,000. All In all, the Manufacturers' Trust Company now has eight offices located In Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens Boroughs, At each of these offices it offers a complete commercial banking service, and facilities for handling It every kind of commercial transaction. a rapidly growing foreign department and trust department in charge interest of experts, as well as special departments.

The company employs more than 350 men and women in all of the offices and the few changes indicate the satisfaction of the employees with their surroundings and conditions. In the fall of 1919 the company Inaugurated a new annual event in the way of a dinner, musicale and dance, to which its was stockholders and employees, in the columns of the daily press and favorably commented upon business publications. Dinners to the employees were quite usual, but it reand mained for this cumpany to introduce carry out this thought- -that the Trust stockholders of the Manufacturers' ration Company members or any bank or corpoare of the family almost to the same extent as officers, directors, and employees, and by meeting the them annually in a social way with president. could have an oppormore tunity, of endeavoring to render some intimate account of the stewardis ship done of the directors and officers than by mere printed quarterly statements of the condition of the the company. This annual gathering gives president an opportunity of having a heart-to-heart talk with the entire tution family, and as a result the instiand has gained the active interest support of stockholders who formerly were merely investors.

The extent of is the increased interest and sapof port reflected in the great. number new accounta which have been recommended by the stockholders since the plan was put Into effect. A proft-sharing arrangement whereby percentage employees receive the same stockholders of their salaries- -as the holdings receive dividends on their stock is in force at the Institution, the rate last year being 19 per, cent. addition, the company conducta educational classes for its employees, (Contianed On Page Four.) Avenue, 125. There are three thousand one hundred of this denomination.

The Second Church of Christ. Disel. ples of Christ, is in the district with one hundred, and six Of Evangelical Association theare the Church of Peace, membershly, 175; Emanual, 250; St. Paul's, 115: Salem, 225. The total here is 730.

Jewish houses of worship 2.10 numerous. the section, exeludin Brownsville, there a are fifteen affording shelter for the worship of 4,850. contributing Among them is the famous Beth Elohim, Dr. Cohen's great temple on Keap street. There are eighteen Lutheran Churches, with 11.035 contributing members.

There are ten Methodist Episcopal with a membership of 7,325. There are two Pentacostal: Churches with a membership of 275. Twelve Protestant Episcopal Churches have a membership of 4.912. them is Christ Church of which Canon Among William Sheafe Chase is. rector.

There are seventeen hundred and twenty members of the Reformed Church The" of America in six churches. Reformed Episcopal has one church with 125 members. The Seventh Day Adventists have two with seven hundred and twenty-five members. The Swedenborgians, have one with- forty are four churches with members. In the miscellaneous group five hundred members.

The twenty-six Roman Catholio Churches in the section have 132,197 communicants. The following relates the history of one of the churches of the section. -It and from the Stiles' illustrations are, reprinted "History of the City of Brooklyn." Lee Avenue Reformed Dutch Church. A Sabbath School was organized in a small frame building situated on the corner of Bedford avenue and. Hewes street, on the third Sabbath In May, 1853.

Three teachers and eight scholars were present at the opening service. and owing to the sparsity of the population in the neighborhood the prospects were not encouraging. "There were no houses in the vicinity, the land. was cultivated by German, market gardeners. open felds everywhere met the eye; notwith.

tor its all with a devoted passtanding this, at head, the Rev. William Halloway, the little band resolved to trust in God and go on with the work. It was deemed advisable to erect the chapel at once, and the site on which Lee Avenue Reformed Church now stands was generously donated Barnet Johnson for the by purpose. the "The bullyding was commenced on first day of June, 1853. The corservices nerstonewas laid with appropriate by the Hon, Benjamin D.

Sitliman, on the third day of the followIng August, and the neat and beautiful chapel fronting on Lee avenue was GoG dedicated by the to the service of Almighty Rev. Dr. Bethune, in the tion. presence on the of an second Immense congrega1854. At this time' the average April, atSabbath of scholars tendance and was about atty, including however, did the tenchers.

members So rapidly, 700 that' on scholars the first day of January, 1856, increace: was enrolled with in the school registers, And it and eighty teachers were "An enlargement difficulty all could be seated, and the work wes decided upon and completed on the first was commenced at once. tember, 1856. day of SepJanuary, 1857. the On the first day of scholars and school had 1,000 ninety teachers. The Sabbath congregation was also very large, the the church.

audiences The Rev. completely filling who had been installed Mr. Hallowas. -danth of on the fiftpastorate October, 1857. resigned the In in the March.

1859. For several. settled months, pastor, the absence of a regular church members of the parent rapidly, diminution declined, but no apthe school. was perceptible in "In Holmes September, 1859, Rev. John And accepted became the call of the pastor of the (Continued on FARO Four.).