The non-profit Brooklyn Lyceum organization was formed on October 10, 1833 with the goal of providing "rational amusement, to promote the intellectual and moral improvement of its members, and especially the interests of the young; also to improve the condition of schools, and advance the cause of popular education." The organization began with a series of lectures in November 1833 which were held at Theodore Eames and Samuel Putnam's Brooklynn English and Classical Hall; a boys' school built by Eames and Putnam on Washington Ave. that opened in March 1831. With funds largely provided by the philanthropist Josiah Dow (1782–1850), the organization placed the
cornerstone of their own building, also known as the Brooklyn Lyceum, on October 31, 1835. Located at 182-184 Washington Street, the building was built at the intersection of Washington and Concord Streets on the opposite corner from the English and Classical Hall where the Brooklyn Lyceum originally held it meetings. The Brooklyn Lyceum building housed more than just the activities of the Brooklyn Lyceum organization and multiple organizations used its premises simultaneously. Shortly after the building's completion, the building became the home of The Hamiltonians, a Brooklyn Literary Society that had also previously used the English and Classical Hall. In 1838 the
Brooklyn Lyceum of Natural History was founded as a sub-organization under the Brooklyn Lyceum. In 1841 the Brooklyn Apprentices' Library, the first free library in Brooklyn, moved from its original location in
Brooklyn Heights at the corner of Henry and Cranberry Streets into the Brooklyn Lyceum. In 1843 the Brooklyn Lyceum organization and the Brooklyn Apprentices' Library merged to form the Brooklyn Institute (later known as the Brooklyn Institute of Arts). That organization later founded numerous cultural institutions in Brooklyn, including the
Brooklyn Museum, the
Brooklyn Botanic Garden, the
Brooklyn Children's Museum, and the
Brooklyn Academy of Music among other cultural, scientific, and education programs. The Brooklyn Institute founded the Brooklyn Institute Free Library in the building, and a massive renovation of the building was done by the organization in 1868. In 1881 the building was damaged by fire, but was deemed salvageable. The building was destroyed by a second fire in 1890. ==References==