St. John’s Hospital Opens In LIC In January 1900

Gazette archives Queensborough Bridge underconstruction. Get into a conversation with a long-time Queens resident and you're likely to discover a subscriber of the Long Island Star-Journal , a daily paper that informed the community about local and world news until it folded in 1968. A banner across the Star-Journal masthead reminded readers that the newspaper's name came from the merger of the Long Island Daily Star (1876) and the North Shore Daily Journal--The Flushing Journal (1841).

Welcome to January 1900!

A Committee of Forty was formed in Long Island City in 1898 to ensure that the scheme to build a bridge from Manhattan to Queens should not fall through after previous efforts had failed. This committee was still very active in January 1900.

On January 19, it met at Strack’s Casino to protest a move by the state Assembly to pass a bill giving the state jurisdiction over the plans for and construction of the bridge. A resolution calling the move “inopportune” was sent to the Commissioner of Bridges, Robert A. Van Wyck, of the action. They further passed a request that no move to pass the bill be made until the committee was heard. The committee agreed to meet two weeks later at the same location and adjourned. (After much political wrangling, the Queensboro Bridge was finally built and opened to traffic in 1909.)

www.correctionhistory.org Robert A. Van Wyck Patrick J. (“Battle Axe”) Gleason, the former colorful mayor of Long Island City, appeared in bankruptcy court on January 2. This proceeding was a filing of creditors’ claims against him. The total amount of claims totaled $55,900.25. On January 19, the proceedings continued before Referee Charles A. Wadley. Additional claims amounting to $61,187.16 were filed. At the same time, Gleason listed his assets as $7 worth of furniture, a $15 small safe, a $25 watch, a $25 shirt stud, and $141 worth of clothing items. His dogs were not valued. He did not give a value for his “Diamond Battle Axe Pin” either, but there were objections from the creditors, which led the Referee to call for an appraisal of the item.

Gleason was sworn and questioned about his real estate dealings. His answers were evasive, most being “I don’t remember.” and “I don’t know.” Questioning about the City Hall property, a parcel on which the City Hall was located when Gleason was mayor, was particularly heated, and Gleason was particularly evasive regarding whether he had owned, or had any interest in the rental income from, the property. The Star commented: “The examination proved a painful one for Gleason and indicated that it would not be plain sailing on the road to bankruptcy.”

On January 7, St. John’s Hospital at Jackson Avenue and 12th Street in Hunters Point was formally opened. Bishop Charles E. McDonald delivered the blessing. In the Star’s words “The formal opening was...one of the most intensely impressive events in the history, not alone of the community in which the noble edifice has been raised, but also of the entire Borough of Queens and the whole of Long Island. The hospital is the culmination of years of arduous labor and earnest, persistent, devotion on the part of the Sisters of St. Joseph, led by that grand woman, the sister superior in charge, Sister Mary David.”

Long before the hour for opening the doors of the new building, immense throngs, blocking thoroughfares for some distance, gathered in front of the building. A parade featuring about 1,000 marchers proceeded up Jackson Avenue to the hospital. At precisely 3:30 p.m., the doors of St. John’s were thrown open, and the parade, preceded by police officers, marched into the building.

Those in the waiting crowd followed until “every passageway was filled and vantage ground secured from which to view the ceremonies, which consisted of Bishop MacDonald, and a small procession, walking through every portion of the building blessing and consecrating it forever to the work of the Lord” as the paper said.

The hospital had five floors of wards, but there were 22 private rooms. While patients could be admitted immediately, the facility would not be fully operational until February.

The Star’s final comment on the hospital noted that provision had been made for emergency cases of insanity. Two rooms in the basement had been set aside for lunatics (mainly female) awaiting examination. The only other facility available for this was the county jail.

The Star observed that it was an interesting sight to watch the homeward nightly tide of travelers at the Thirty-Fourth Street ferry in Hunters Point. The rush began about 6 o’clock and lasted for about two hours. Every boat landed a large crowd of passengers, all of whom dashed through the iron folding gates of the ferry toward waiting LIRR trains or trolleys. The distance to the cars was about 100 yards, and there were many near collisions as the men ran to get a seat on one of them. The crush was so bad that the New York and Queens Railway planned to put double wide trolleys into service and the LIRR would do likewise for its rolling stock. To the “old-timer” this was a sign of growth. Years before, one could exchange the time of day with nearly everyone boarding a horse car. “Nowadays the ‘old-timer’ feels lonesome as he watches the crowds dash from the ferryboat to cars.”

A recent report by the Queens Borough Board of Health showed that 31,521 interments were made in the Borough in 1899. Nearly all the large cemeteries were located in the Second Ward, formerly known as Newtown. Previous to the consolidation of the five boroughs of New York in 1898, Newtown Township imposed a $1 tax on each interment within its jurisdiction. This compensated the town for the large amount of cemetery property exempt from taxation. It was estimated that half a million people had been buried in the Second Ward cemeteries, principally Calvary and Lutheran Cemeteries.

The contracts for street lighting for the Borough of Queens for the year 1900 were awarded. The Long Island Electric Illuminating Company was to light Long Island City with 482 arc lights of 2,000 candlepower at a cost of 39 cents per light per night, or $144 per year per light. This company also won the contract to illuminate Hollis, Springfield, St. Albans and the farming district with 500 arc lamps at $100 per lamp per annum. The New York and Queens Gas and Electric Lighting Company would light Flushing with 247 1,200-candlepower arc lights at $111 per lamp per annum.

Decades before movies and television were invented, Queens residents attended masked balls and other events for their entertainment. In January 1900, some of the scheduled events included 14 balls, 16 entertainments ranging from music programs to vaudeville and a “basket ball” (spelling from the Star) game between Astoria’s Redeemer Company and Grace Chapel of New York. Almost all social organizations had annual masked balls, and some of those had been held for decades.

That’s the way it was in January 1900!

For more information, contact the Greater Astoria Historical Society at 718-728-0700 or visit www.astorialic.org.

The Civil War Roundtable of New York with The Greater Astoria Historical Society Presents "Civil War Saturdays" Three notable lecturers from Queens:

Jan. 21, 2006: "Mighty Stonewall — The greatest general of the Confederacy" with Astoria's Patrick Falci, acclaimed Civil War re-enactor and historical advisor to the movie, 'Gettysburg'.

Jan. 28, 2006: "Mosby's Rangers—Partisans of the Valley" with Woodside's Bill Reynolds, a leading historian and author of “John Singleton Mosby”, the celebrated Civil War guerilla fighter.

Feb. 4, 2006: "General Grant—his first two years of the Civil War" with Glendale's A. E. "Bud" Livingston, noted author and lecturer.

Open to the public, Saturdays, noon till four at Quinn’s Gallery, 4th Floor, 35-20 Broadway, Long Island City. For further information, call the Greater Astoria Historical Society at 718-278-0700 or visit their website at HYPERLINK "http://www.astorialic.org/"\t "_blank" www.astorialic.org.