On December 22, 1981, the Pratt Institute Main Building and Library were designated landmarks. Pratt Institute was founded in 1887. The school was influenced by the education movements of the second half of the 19th century, but also reflected one man’s attempt to deal with industry’s growing need for new skills and knowledge.
Charles Pratt geared the school toward young men and women who earned their own livings. Pratt’s Institute was built along three city blocks between Willoughby and DeKalb avenues in what is now the Clinton Hill neighborhood.
The institute originally had two buildings: the Main Building (landmarked) and the Mechanical Arts Building, now called the East Building. The Free Library (landmarked), created as part of the Institute, was located in the Main Building. The engine room and boiler for the whole campus (which could also serve as teaching devices) were located in the Mechanical Arts Building.
Despite his optimism, Pratt built his Institute so that it might easily be converted into a shoe factory if the education enterprise failed. Pratt’s desire was to train 3,000 students a year and he once said, “I would like to make the number 4,000 if I dared.”
He wanted the school to serve “all classes of workers, artists, artisans, apprentices and home makers,” who would be offered “courses conducted in such a way as to give every student practical skill along some definite line of work.”
The Institute was open from the beginning to “persons of both sexes,” and courses were organized specifically for women. They included millinery, tailoring, home nursing, washing and ironing — the latter course being prompted by the common complaint of the time that servant girls were ill trained.
The breadth of the Institute’s commitment to education opportunity was demonstrated in 1888, when a black student applied for admission. The Institute made a firm decision that there would be no discrimination on the basis of race.
In the early days of Pratt Institute, students paid $2.50 per course. Pratt grew in size and evolved from a largely trade school to a professional school. In the mid-1930s Pratt became a four-year degree-granting institution. By the mid-1940s, degree programs were offered in art, architecture, advertising, industrial and interior design, library sciences, home economics, and chemical, mechanical, and electrical engineering.
Pratt’s faculty draws upon the best designers and architects in New York. Graduates have introduced the American public to Cuisinart, the Trim-Line phone, the IBM keyboard, the Pro-Max dryer, aviator-shaped glasses among many other designs.
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© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2009
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