The higher institutions of learning are numerous, but we can mention only
the principal here.
The University of the City of New York was established in 1831, and is
regarded as one of the best institutions of its kind in the country. It
has a chancellor and a full corps of professors in its several schools.
It includes a preparatory department, a grammar school, a school of art,
a school of civil engineering, a school of analytical and practical
chemistry, a school of medicine, and a school of law. The medical school
has been especially famous, and has numbered among its professors, at
various times, such men as Valentine Mott, John W. Draper, and William H.
Van Buren.
The University building is a showy edifice of white marble, in the
English collegiate style of architecture, and is situated on the east
side of Washington Square, between Waverley and East Washington Places,
fronting on University Place. It has a frontage of 200 feet and a depth
of 100 feet. The principal entrance is by the central door. From this a
flight of marble steps leads to the main floor. Besides the rooms used
for the various purposes of the University, there is a handsome chapel,
and a hall containing a valuable library. Many of the rooms of the
building are occupied by physicians, artists, and various societies, and
as chambers by single men.
[Picture: UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK.]
Columbia College, occupying the block bounded by Madison and Fourth
avenues, and Forty-ninth and Fiftieth streets, is the oldest institution
of learning in the State, and ranks among the leading institutions of the
country. It was founded by George II., in 1754, under the title of
King's College. The college was originally located in the lower part of
the city, but, in 1849, the trustees purchased the present buildings,
which were formerly used by the State Institution for Deaf Mutes.
Attached to the college is a school of mines, in which full instruction
is given in all the branches required to make a perfect scientific as
well as a practical mining engineer. Large and extensive laboratories
are attached to the school. There is also a law school, which forms a
portion of the college, and which is located in Lafayette Place, opposite
the Astor Library. The College of Physicians and Surgeons, at the corner
of Twenty-third street and Fourth avenue, constitutes the medical school
of Columbia College. The college is very wealthy, and its property is
valued at several millions of dollars.
[Picture: COLUMBIA COLLEGE.]
The other colleges are, the College of St. Francis Xavier, in West
Fifteenth street, the Union Theological Seminary, conducted by the
Presbyterian Church, the College of Pharmacy, the New York Medical
College for Women, the New York College of Veterinary Surgeons, the
General Theological Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal Church, the
Rutgers Female College, the New York Homoeopathic College, several other
medical colleges, and several business colleges.
There are about 325 private and sectarian schools and academies in New
York, with an average annual attendance of about 15,000 or 20,000 pupils,
and employing more than 1500 teachers.
The Cooper Institute is an imposing edifice of brown stone, occupying the
block bounded by Third and Fourth avenues, and Seventh and Eighth
streets. It was erected at a cost of nearly half a million dollars, by
Peter Cooper, Esq., an eminent merchant of New York. The basement is
occupied by an immense lecture room, capable of seating several thousand
persons. The street floor is taken up with stores. The floor above this
contains a number of offices, and the remainder of the building is
occupied by a free library and reading room, and halls for lectures and
for study.
[Picture: THE COOPER INSTITUTE.]
The Institute is designed for the gratuitous instruction of the working
classes in science, art, telegraphy, English, literature, and the foreign
languages. One of its departments is a School of Design for women. The
course is thorough and the standard of proficiency is high. The
examinations are very searching, and it may be safely asserted, that the
graduates of this institution are thoroughly grounded in the practical
arts and sciences. The institution is a noble monument to the wisdom and
benevolence of its founder, and is doing an immense amount of good to the
class he designed to benefit. It is liberally endowed, and is managed by
a Board of Directors. The stores and offices yield an annual income of
nearly $30,000. The annual attendance upon the schools is about 1800.