103 
“The Brooklyn Horticultural Society was organized in Feb- 
ruary, and incorporated in April, 1854, under the auspices of 
some of our most enterprising citizens. The two earliest ex- 
hibitions of the society were given at the Athenaeum in the 
months of March and April, 1854, of hothouse and greenhouse 
plants from the conservatories of gentlemen connected with the 
society, and other citizens. The President was John W. De- 
grauw, Esq. The society is now extinct. 
“The Hunt Horticultural and Botanical Garden, incorporated 
April 9, 1855, with a capital of $150,000, was the legitimate off- 
spring of the Brooklyn Horticultural Society ; ‘it having been the 
cherished design of that society from the first, to bring about the 
establishment within or near the borders of our city, of an in- 
stitution, kindred in its nature and objects, to their own, and by 
means of which the accomplishment of their department, in the 
work of developing and perfecting the art of horticulture, might 
be greatly facilitated. The consummation of the project was 
principally due to John W. Degrauw, and Wm. 5S. Dunham, Esqs., 
the president and treasurer of the B. H. Society, whose energetic 
and persevering efforts carried the matter to a successful issue, 
and to the liberality of Messrs. Thomas Hunt, William C. Lang- 
ley, and Henry A. Kent, who together contributed in fee sixteen 
acres of ground (valued at the present time at $25,000), to be 
devoted to the purposes of the institution. These three gentle- 
men, also, subscribed largely to the stock of the institution, the 
former standing sponsor for the sum of $50,000, and the others 
$14,000 and $10,000, respectively. 
“The site of the Garden was between Fifth and Sixth avenues, 
and Fifty-seventh and Sixtieth streets (comprising three blocks) 
on the southwestern boundary of the city of Brooklyn. The 
portions of the two streets laid out on the map, that intersect the 
site, were to be obliterated, and the three blocks to be consoli- 
dated into a square, the sides of which will measure nearly seven 
hundred feet. Here its originators hoped to found a garden 
which shall contribute its fair share to the cultivation of the 
‘love of the beautiful,’ and confer enduring honor, not only on 
its projectors, but also on the city that gave it birth. ‘The enter- 
prise, however, was relinquished several years ago.” 


