New-York tribune., 1901-08-11
OLD ACADEMY TO GO SOON.
HISTORY OF THE ORGANIZATION
WHICH WAS HOUSED IN THE EAST
TWENTY-THIRD-ST BUILDING.

The old home of the National Academy of De
sign, the Venetian Gothic building in East
Twenty -third-st. with which are associated the
professional aspirations. trials and successes of
almost all of the present generation Of American
painters. will be torn down in few days BY
many the disappearance of this landmark will
be viewed with regret.
Frederick Dielman, president of the National
Academy of Design, expressed to Tribune re-
porter yesterday his earnest hope that the acad-
emy would be established shortly in new
home worthy of it's honorable career and ade
quate to fulfil the greater needs of the future.
Mr.. DeIman added that at the time of the
transfer of the property to the Metropol-
tan Life Insurance Company the academy re-
served certain parts of the old building, such as
the columns of the corridor, with their beautiful
sculptured capitals and bases, which were gifts
to the institution from various friends and
would be Incorporated in the new building.
The National Academy of Design has an in
terestng history. In the founding of an acad-
emy of art the first steps were taken by several
citizens of New-York in 1902 They chose as
president Edward Livingston. who was United
States District Attorney and Mayor of New
York when the City Hall built. and as sec
retary DR.. Peter Irving elder brother of
Washington Irving, and Editor of THE Morn
ing Chronicle" The title adopted was that OF
The NewYork Academy of Fine Arts"
charter was obtained in 1908, with the name
changed to The American Academy of Arts"
A collection Of casts had been bought in Paris
a few years before by Robert r. Livingston.
then Ambassador to France. the cost of which
seriously crippled the treasury of the infant
academy. The casts were exhibited in vacant
riding school in Greenwich-st.. near the Battery,
then the centre of the highest fashion. Season
tickets cost So apiece. but the Battery prom
enade was more attractive to the sightseers of
the day than the collection which was stored In
various places till 1916 when an effort was
made to revive the neglected academy.
That effort was successful, as De Witt Clinton
was then its president and through his influence
the city appropriated to the use of the academy
the upper part of large public building called,
from former use, THE Old Almshouse." The
building was on the north side of the City Hall
Park, fronting in Chambers-st., the site occu-
pied by the courthouse. Money was borrowed
to construct galleries, an exhibition opened,
and was SO successful that the directors in
CURED expenses which eventually greatly en-
barrassed them. On November s, 1923 a meet
ing was held by students in the rooms of the
Historical Society to consider the formation Of a
society for Improvement in drawing They could
not to agreement with the old acad-
emy. and the New-York Drawing Association
then transformed into the National Acad-
emy of the Arts of Design.
The academy's first exhibition was held in
second story room, twenty-five feet by fifty feet
in area, at Broadway and Reade-st. 1t was
advertised as brilliantly illuminated by gas
then novelty The Illumination consisted of
six single burners for the whole exhibition. In
1927 the exhibition was held over the Arcade
Baths IN Chambers-st. afterward the site Of
Burton's Theatre c. c. Ingham proposed the
formation of a sketch club. to meet at one
another's houses for impromptu sketches and
social intercourse. The club continued to meet
till 1916, when it resolved itself into the Cen
tury Club. The academy's exhibitions were
prosperous till 1S41, when the attendance began
to fall off. The academy had no building of its
own and its casts in a dreary loft in
Thirteenth-st The academieians had to pay
high rents and to change from one upper floor
to another as leases expired.
Jonathan Sturges and Charles NJ Leupp came
TO the academy's rescue Lots in MerCer-st
were bought a house in Broadway was secured
on a long lease for an entrance, and soon the
academicians had spacious suite OF galleries
reached by only a short flight of stairs. For
several years the exhibitions f1ourished till the
property sold at a profit of S6SOOO The
academcians were thereby enabled to buy the
lot in East TWenty-third-st. on which the old
Academy of Design building was erected. and
which was sold at a handsome profit to the
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company.