Bushwick, Brooklyn

The 83rd Precinct Police Station with its connecting stable powerfully dominates its corner site at the intersection of DeKalb and Wilson Avenues, and strikingly symbolizes its important purpose in the community. Wilson Avenue, originally called Hamburg Avenue, was renamed in honor of President Woodrow Wilson in 1919. Erected as the 20th Precinct House in 1894-5, this fine Romanesque Revival station house is situated in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn

The small town of Bushwick, which derived its name from the Dutch word "Boswijk", meaning "town of the woods", was annexed by the City of Williamsburg in 1840. The Bushwick area remained primarily rural until the 1850s when a great many German immigrants settled there, Shortly afterward, in 1854, Bushwick together with Williamsburg, was officially made part of the rapidly expanding City of Brooklyn.

A few years before this consolidation, the rather primitive system of patrol in Brooklyn had been replaced by the more modern and efficient Brooklyn Police Department, established in 1850. The organization of Brooklyn’s police force was based on that of Manhattan which had been formed six years earlier. The Brooklyn Department of Police and Excise was created in 1873 and existed until 1898 when Brooklyn became part of Greater New York.

Its police system was then merged with that of Manhattan and the three other boroughs to become one single New York City Police Department. At the time of this merger the pot tee precincts were renumbered and the 20th Precinct Station became the headquarters of the 64th Precinct, it remained the 64th until 1929, when once again the precincts were renumbered and it became the 83rd Precinct Station House.

In September 1895 the new 20th Precinct Police Station was completed and its opening was celebrated with much ceremony. Mayor Chartes A, Schieren and Police Commissioner Leonard R. Welles attended, as did all the inspectors and captains who "were present in bright uniforms and made a reception committee of dazzling magnificence". The building and its opening ceremonies were described in a detailed article in the Brooklyn Citizen, which depicted the intense pride of the Police Department in its station houses.

The author praised the modernity of the new 20th Precinct Station noting that now pot icemen "returning from a tour of duty, fitted with dangers and suffering from the biting winds, could obtain all the comforts as if they were at their own fireside".

The formalities of the opening ceremony were not without humour. Police Commissioner Welles, is presenting the key of the new station house to Captain Dunn, teasingly addressed him: "Captain Dunn, take this key. I know you will keep it as clean as your record and I hope you will continue to keep yourself as clean as you will keep the station house." Quite naturally, Captain Dunn "blushed like a school boy".

Hailed by Commissioner Welles as "commodious, architecturally ornate, and thoroughly equipped, … the handsomest and most convenient police office in the world", the precinct station was designed by the prominent architect, William B. Tubby (1858-1944). Born in Des Moines, Iowa. Tubby moved to Brooklyn as a young boy and studied at the Potytechnic institute there. After taking over the practice of Ebenezer L. Roberts in 1883, Tubby set up his own firm and designed a number of buildings in Brooklyn as well as in other northeastern cities.

Other Romanesque Revival structures by Tubby include the Charles Millard Pratt House (1893) on Clinton Avenue in Brooklyn and the no longer extant Market and Fulton National Bank (c. 1888) in Manhattan. The broad range of Tubby’s use of architectural styles is illustrated by his expansive Dutch Renaissance Wallabout Market (1884) in Brooklyn and his several eclectic designs for branches of the Brooklyn Public Library, such as the neo-Classic DeKalb branch of 1905.

Not only did Tubby work in a number of different styles, but he also executed several different building types, including a courthouse in Mineola, New York, hospitals in Greenwich and Norwalk, Connecticut, and a Presbyterian Church in Roslyn, New York, dating from the 1920s.

The precinct station was designed comparatively early in Tubby’s long and varied career and it is a fine example of the late Romanesque Revivat style. Its bold ornate character was remarked upon in the Brooklyn Citizen as presenting a "strange contrast to the plain modern tenement houses in the neighborhood."

The image of a police station as a fortification defending the neighborhood seems to have been quite popular at this period and the use of Romanesque Revival motifs was particularly appropriate in creating the image of a station house as a medieval stronghold.

A number of other Romanesque Revival station houses were erected in Brooklyn during the 1890s, including two almost completely identical p

179 Wilson Avenue, Bushwick, Brooklyn

The 83rd Precinct Police Station with its connecting stable powerfully dominates its corner site at the intersection of DeKalb and Wilson Avenues, and strikingly symbolizes its important purpose in the community. Wilson Avenue, originally called Hamburg Avenue, was renamed in honor of President Woodrow Wilson in 1919. Erected as the 20th Precinct House in 1894-5, this fine Romanesque Revival station house is situated in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn

The small town of Bushwick, which derived its name from the Dutch word "Boswijk", meaning "town of the woods", was annexed by the City of Williamsburg in 1840. The Bushwick area remained primarily rural until the 1850s when a great many German immigrants settled there, Shortly afterward, in 1854, Bushwick together with Williamsburg, was officially made part of the rapidly expanding City of Brooklyn.

A few years before this consolidation, the rather primitive system of patrol in Brooklyn had been replaced by the more modern and efficient Brooklyn Police Department, established in 1850. The organization of Brooklyn’s police force was based on that of Manhattan which had been formed six years earlier. The Brooklyn Department of Police and Excise was created in 1873 and existed until 1898 when Brooklyn became part of Greater New York.

Its police system was then merged with that of Manhattan and the three other boroughs to become one single New York City Police Department. At the time of this merger the pot tee precincts were renumbered and the 20th Precinct Station became the headquarters of the 64th Precinct, it remained the 64th until 1929, when once again the precincts were renumbered and it became the 83rd Precinct Station House.

In September 1895 the new 20th Precinct Police Station was completed and its opening was celebrated with much ceremony. Mayor Chartes A, Schieren and Police Commissioner Leonard R. Welles attended, as did all the inspectors and captains who "were present in bright uniforms and made a reception committee of dazzling magnificence". The building and its opening ceremonies were described in a detailed article in the Brooklyn Citizen, which depicted the intense pride of the Police Department in its station houses.

The author praised the modernity of the new 20th Precinct Station noting that now pot icemen "returning from a tour of duty, fitted with dangers and suffering from the biting winds, could obtain all the comforts as if they were at their own fireside".

The formalities of the opening ceremony were not without humour. Police Commissioner Welles, is presenting the key of the new station house to Captain Dunn, teasingly addressed him: "Captain Dunn, take this key. I know you will keep it as clean as your record and I hope you will continue to keep yourself as clean as you will keep the station house." Quite naturally, Captain Dunn "blushed like a school boy".

Hailed by Commissioner Welles as "commodious, architecturally ornate, and thoroughly equipped, … the handsomest and most convenient police office in the world", the precinct station was designed by the prominent architect, William B. Tubby (1858-1944). Born in Des Moines, Iowa. Tubby moved to Brooklyn as a young boy and studied at the Potytechnic institute there. After taking over the practice of Ebenezer L. Roberts in 1883, Tubby set up his own firm and designed a number of buildings in Brooklyn as well as in other northeastern cities.

Other Romanesque Revival structures by Tubby include the Charles Millard Pratt House (1893) on Clinton Avenue in Brooklyn and the no longer extant Market and Fulton National Bank (c. 1888) in Manhattan. The broad range of Tubby’s use of architectural styles is illustrated by his expansive Dutch Renaissance Wallabout Market (1884) in Brooklyn and his several eclectic designs for branches of the Brooklyn Public Library, such as the neo-Classic DeKalb branch of 1905.

Not only did Tubby work in a number of different styles, but he also executed several different building types, including a courthouse in Mineola, New York, hospitals in Greenwich and Norwalk, Connecticut, and a Presbyterian Church in Roslyn, New York, dating from the 1920s.

The precinct station was designed comparatively early in Tubby’s long and varied career and it is a fine example of the late Romanesque Revivat style. Its bold ornate character was remarked upon in the Brooklyn Citizen as presenting a "strange contrast to the plain modern tenement houses in the neighborhood."

The image of a police station as a fortification defending the neighborhood seems to have been quite popular at this period and the use of Romanesque Revival motifs was particularly appropriate in creating the image of a station house as a medieval stronghold.

A number of other Romanesque Revival station houses were erected in Brooklyn during the 1890s, including two almost com