Catholic College Announced in Brooklyn, 1868

THE NEW CATHOLIC COLLEGE.
The Brooklyn Eagle, February 24, 1868

For a long time the energetic Catholic Bishop of Brooklyn, the Right Rev. John Loughlin, has cherished the idea of founding in this city a college that shall take the first rank among the educational institutions of the United States. The subject has been discussed in conversation both by priests and laymen, until a hearty and general sympathy with Dr. Loughlin’s view on the matter prevails. The priests of the congregation of the mission of St. Vincent de Paul have now formally undertaken the enterprise as regards the raising of the funds and the supervision of the college when completed. Father McNamara, one of their number, is actively engaged in collecting subscriptions for the building fund, both by personal solicitations, appeals from the pulpit in the various parishes and the delivery of lectures; and the appeal is being liberally responded to, not only by Catholic laymen, but by many friends of education and men of public spirit, not members of the Catholic church, who have promised large donations to the college. Among these we may mention the Hon. Mayor Kalbfleisch.

The contributions to the building fund have already grown to such an amount as to authorize the gentlemen in charge of it to procure a site and arrange the general outlines of their plan. They have secure the entire of one of the large blocks of land in the Ninth Ward, 750 feet on Willoughby avenue and Hart Street, by 200 feet on Lewis and Stuyvesant avenues. This block is equi-distant from the De Kalb and Myrtle avenue railroad routes, being two blocks from each. The building plan has not been worked out, but the leading ideas of the structures to be erected have been decided on. There will be a building for the college proper, fronting on Willoughby avenue, of the dimensions of 125 x 40 feet and three stories in height. In the centre of the block will be the residence of the professors and students, and on each side two smaller college buildings. In the rear will be the college chapel— which will be of large size, serving as a place of public worship for the Catholics of the neighborhood, as well as for the attendance of the inmates of the college.

The hope of the promoters of this enterprise is to found in this college an educational institute of the highest class, which shall grow up to be a rival of the greatest universities of the old world. As the number of students increases, additional college buildings can be erected on the same block, so as to augment the capacity of the college for accommodating students, to a practically unlimited extent. To erect even those buildings which are now designed an enormous outlay will be incurred, and the object is one which recommends itself to all friends of education. The refining influences of the highest class of university education, as is proposed to be carried on in this Brooklyn college, will be of immeasurable value to future generations, since they are not confined to the immediate partakers of the collegiate instruction, but from them are diffused throughout society at large.

It is expected that during the ensuing summer the main building will be completed, so that pupils can be received and the course of study entered upon.

NOTE: The above newsclipping appeared in The Brooklyn Catholic, a short-lived diocesan newspaper, in 1869. It may well be the first newspaper advertisement of any kind for St. John’s. This week marks Founders Week at St. John’s University, Jamaica, and the blog will feature items relating to the school and the Vincentian Fathers who founded it. (Disclosure: I graduated from St. John’s with a Master’s in History in 1994!)