Pratt Institute Historic District

About this property

Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York. It has an additional campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The institute was founded in 1887 with programs primarily in engineering, architecture, and fine arts. Comprising six schools, the institute is primarily known for its programs in architecture, graphic design, interior design, industrial design, and fine arts. Pratt Institute was founded in 1887 by American industrialist Charles Pratt, a successful businessman, oil tycoon, and one of the wealthiest men in the history of Brooklyn. He was an early pioneer of the oil industry in the United States. He was the founder of Astral Oil Works based in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn, which was a leader in replacing whale oil with petroleum. In 1867, he established Charles Pratt and Company, and in 1874, his companies amalgamated with John D. Rockefeller's companies. They became part of the Standard Oil trust, where Pratt continued his active involvement on the board and the running of it. Pratt, an advocate of education, wanted to provide working men and women the opportunity to better their lives through education. He had never had the chance to go to college himself, and wanted to create an affordable college accessible to the working class. In 1884 he purchased large plots of land near his home in Clinton Hill to open a school. It would end up being built only two blocks from his residence on Clinton Avenue. Utilizing his fortunes with Astral Oil and Charles Pratt and Company, in 1886 he endowed and founded Pratt Institute. In May 1887, the New York State Legislature granted Charles Pratt a charter to open the school. On October 17, 1887, the institute opened to 12 students in the Main Hall. Tuition was $4 per class per term (approximately equivalent to $143.3 in 2025). The college was one of the first in the country open to all people, regardless of class, color, and gender. In the early years, its mission was to offer education to those who never had it offered to them before. Pratt believed that teaching technical skills - drawing, building, designing - promoted intellectual thought and creativity. Many programs were tailored to the growing need to train industrial workers in the changing economy with training in design and engineering. Early programs sought to teach students a variety of subjects, such as architectural engineering, mechanics, dressmaking, and furniture making. Graduates of the school were taught to become engineers, mechanics, and technicians. Drawing, whether freehand, mechanical, or architectural, thought of as being a universal language, united such diverse programs, and thus all programs in the school had a strong foundation in drawing. The curriculum was complemented by a large liberal arts curriculum. Students studied subjects such as history, mathematics, physics, and literature to better understand the world in which they would be working, which is still used in Pratt's curriculum.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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