When the Brooklyn Historical Society Museum opened for the 2007 season on Wednesday, May 23rd, it occupied the entire first floor of the building immediately behind the equestrian statue of General Israel Putnam at 25 Canterbury Road. The space at the rear of the building which has housed the museum since 2000 has become the General Putnam Gallery with two permanent exhibits dedicated to Brooklyn’s Revolutionary War hero: Israel Putnam: Facets of a Hero which tells about Putnam’s life as farmer, soldier, tavern owner, and folk hero and General Israel Putnam Remembered which tells the story of the creation of his imposing monument. The new gallery at the front of the building houses this year’s temporary exhibit Brooklyn’s Architectural Treasures which highlights the rich and diverse architecture of our town in chronological order from a circa 1720 Cape style residence to the 1887 Queen Anne style Trinity Parish Hall, both contributing properties in the Brooklyn Green Historic District. The exhibit also includes properties from the Bush Hill Historic District and Old Trinity Church.
The expansion of the museum is an important milestone for the society which was founded in 1970 to preserve and showcase local history. In 1972 Rainsford and Ruth Sherman donated the Daniel Putnam Tyler Law Office to the society for use as a museum and offered the present-day museum building for purchase. Although a daunting challenge for a newly-formed group, they purchased the land and buildings-there is a 20th century two-car garage as well as the museum building whose circa 1900′s facade hides its earlier beginnings-for $18,000. House tours such as Three Centuries of Brooklyn held on June 3, 1972, an auction, a flea market and other fund-raising activities, and a grant from the Department of Economic Development of Connecticut allowed the society to both move the Daniel Putnam Tyler Law Office to its present site and restore it and retire the mortgage on the museum building in two years.
Although the minutes clearly show that the original intention of the society was that the purchased building become the museum where exhibits could tell Brooklyn’s stories, the energies of the group were devoted to readying the law office for its June 18, 1983 official opening. In order to have the funds to maintain both buildings, the two-story museum building was rented out to businesses such as Brookside Properties for use of the first floor and individuals for the second-floor apartment.
Our use of the space at the rear of the building at 25 Canterbury Road came about because the Town of Brooklyn needed the room at the Recreation Building, which had been used from 1991 through 1999 for the exhibits of the Brooklyn Historical Society Mini Museum, for use by the second Resident State Trooper. After exploring other museum sites, the membership voted to renovate the smaller rear portion of our own building that was no longer needed by the real estate office for use as our museum. In accordance with ADA mandates, this renovation included the creation of handicapped access to the building and a handicapped-accessible bathroom.