Tubby and Pratt

Once I got over my childish enjoyment of his name, I learned that William Bunker Tubby was a well respected NYC architect at the turn of the century.    He designed the library at the Pratt Institute, along with three other buildings on campus and many homes for the Pratt family.  The home he designed for Pratt’s eldest son, Charles Millard,  is actually famous as one of the best examples of Romanesque Revival designs in the country!  According to Brownstoner.com the mansion is now the Bishop of Brooklyn’s official residence, which is quite a perk, as I imagine just the upkeep and operational costs are exorbitant.  Brownstoner offers a fabulous detailed description of the home at their website. 
Pratt actually had mansions built for his four sons as wedding presents right on the same block in the Clinton Hill neighborhood, which is certainly one way to increase your property value.   
The Pratt Institute Free Library, built in 1888, is another one of Tubby’s Romanesque Revival building and a designated city landmark.  The interior of the library is equally beautiful and was designed by a company you may have heard of,  The Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company.  The elaborate marble center staircase and elegant metalwork throughout are stunning.  Check out the lovely old pictures at their website.   But the really amazing thing about the Pratt Library is that when it opened in 1888 it was a FREE and truly PUBLIC library.  F. William Chickering, Former Dean of Libraries, wrote that Charles Pratt wanted the library to be opened to all citizens of Brooklyn regardless of sex, race, ethnicity or socioeconomic status.  That is really saying something considering the times.  
By July of 1888 there were 284 free members of the library.  The library was wildly popular and expanded quickly...a familiar story for libraries everywhere.  Pratt went on to open a branch at Greenpoint (at his apartment experiment) and in Long Island - both branches were eventually were absorbed by the Brooklyn Public Library in the 1900s.  The Pratt Library was also the home to the School of Library Economy (now the School of Information and Library Science) and a museum.  
By the 1980s the library school and the museum had both moved to their own spaces and the library was updated, renovated, preserved and added on to.  It emerged better than ever and ready to receive a new designation as a New York City Landmark.  There is a little bittersweet taste to our happy ending because, according to Montrose Morris,  the library has been private since 1941.     
Tubby designed five more libraries (Carnegie libraries) as a member of the Architect’s Advisory Commission in Brooklyn, NY. and had a long and successful career designing public and private building in NY and CT.  He lived in Brooklyn Heights for most of his career and eventually retired to Greenwich, CT.  
Tubby’s relationship with Pratt even stretched into the next world.  He was hired to design and build the Pratt Family Cemetery and Mausoleum in Long Island:

Copied from was The True Democrat of Bayou Sara, Louisiana; publish date of September 12, 1896:

An Expensive Death Vault
The heirs of the late Charles Pratt, a rich millionaire who died some time ago in Brooklyn, decided to build an expensive vault for the last resting place of his ashes. The vault will be constructed of the finest quality of marble and will be elaborate in design. It will cost $190,000, in addition to which the sum of $60,000 will be set aside for the proper care and maintenance of this handsome monumental structure. In furtherance of this plan agreed upon by the heirs a part of Mr. Platt's estate near Glen Cove, L. I., has been set aside as a private cemetery and there the vault will be erected.-Atlanta Constitution.

The Pratt Way

Melvil Dewey pushed and pestered his way right out the door of Columbia.  The trustees responded to his persistence to do things ‘his way’ by closing their library school and sweeping Dewey out.  Columbia was actually willing to turn away applicants, shut down the waiting list and turn their back on the program’s success in order to ditch Dewey - that is some bad blood.  
Anna Elliott’s article, appropriately entitled “A Singular and Contentious Life”, explains that by the time Dewey left Columbia his library school had been emulated by other colleges - certainly his initiative (whatever his motives) was a step in the right directions for libraries and librarians.  Graduates of Dewey’s program went on to found new library schools or direct them around the country.  Dewey moved on to Albany in 1883 to become the Director of the New York State Library and he took his school with him, which he renamed the New York State Library School.  He continued to push the envelope wherever he went and was encouraged to retire from the library world in 1906.
But the seeds of library learning had been planted and soon a seedling sprouted in Brooklyn.   The Pratt Institute, which now includes five professional schools, opened  1886 as a trade school.  Charles Pratt was another one of those millionaire industrialists looking for a beneficial way to spend his fortune - (we really need another one of those eras).  He made his money as petroleum pioneer in 1867 and had a kerosene refinery in Brooklyn.  He hit the jackpot after a few years when his company became a part of Standard Oil.  Although Pratt was a successful business man and had money to burn, he always regretted not finishing his eduction, much like Andrew Carnegie.  

photo from Pratt livejournal

According to The Cycopaedia of American Biography, published in 1918, Charles Pratt was a visionary with a big heart.  His determination to make the world a better place led him down many paths including the design of a model tenement and a banking system for people to accumulate their savings (called The Thrift).  He was a little more practical than Carnegie and dreamed of creating a school where students could learn to work with their hands and to appreciate “the value of intelligent manual labor”.  The Pratt Institute continues to fulfill that mission today and is driven by the motto:  “be true to your work and you work will be true to you”.  In addition to schools for kindergarten training and household science, they offered a library science program.  The website actually lays claim to the title of the oldest LIS school in North America, having been accredited since 1923 when the system for accreditation first began.  Sadly Pratt died only four years after beginning his school and the his son, Frederic, became the president.  In a founder’s day speech from 1890 Pratt revealed his altruistic character when he told students, “care not for your enjoyment, care not for your life, care only for what is right.”  That’s a motto worth living up to.