Walkabout: Safe Driving in Brooklyn’s Schools

Ever since Henry Ford’s assembly line made it possible for the average American to purchase a car, we’ve been in love with the automobile. But Ford was not the only automaker around, and no sooner than the first cars started to appear, than it seemed that every inventor and blacksmith with a knack for engines and enough money to go into business, was becoming a car maker. The beginning of the 20th century was a marvelous time for the automobile, and there were dozens of companies, long before the “Big Three” took over the industry. Most of these names are long forgotten. Some of the cars produced by these smaller companies no longer exist outside of photographs and drawings. But back then, they were all here, rolling down the streets of Brooklyn.

Although there were dealerships, garages and suppliers all over the borough, Bedford Avenue, especially between Malbone Street (now Empire Boulevard) and Fulton Street, a long stretch of road starting in Flatbush, through the entirety of Crown Heights, and on into Bedford Stuyvesant, became known as “Automobile Row.” Residential development in this area had been slowed down by the looming and forbidding presence of the Brooklyn Penitentiary on Bedford and Union, but as soon as that structure was torn down in 1907, things started to take off.

Bedford Avenue ran through the entirety of Brooklyn, and was accessible by all kinds of public transportation. Prospect Park was nearby, as were the upscale neighborhoods of central Brooklyn. Automobile dealers, garages and suppliers began building showrooms and facilities along Bedford Avenue, taking advantage of the cheaper land prices and the ability to have a larger lot. Car shows started to be semi-annual occurrences in the 23rd Regiment Armory on Bedford and Atlantic, and the area grew. In 1913, the opening of Ebbets Field was the icing on the cake, bringing in thousands of people, the perfect place for cars to be bought and sold. As the years went by, Automobile Row grew.

The advances of the 20th century changed everyone’s lives. With any new technology, there is always the need to have people who can not only sell whatever it is, but service it. New York City’s educational system addressed that need by offering specialized high schools to train students in various trades. This was not a new idea, “manual training schools” had been a part of the school system since the last decade of the 19th century, teaching boys the building trades and girls homemaking and sewing.

By the dawn of World War II, the Board of Education had opened various specialized schools for the needle trades, aviation mechanics, subway/transportation mechanics, machine trades, food services, homemaking, which included cosmetology and nursing, accounting and the auto trades. Brooklyn was home to several of these schools, including the Brooklyn High School of Automotive Trades, located at 50 Bedford Avenue, at the edge of McCarren Park, in Greenpoint.

The school opened in 1938, and was a state of the art facility, hailed as one of the finest schools of its kind in the country. It was a collaboration between the educational world and the automotive industry, with the latter consulting with architects and engineers to build “an automobile hospital where broken radiators will be soldered, bent fenders straightened and sputtering motors made to hum like new,” as the New York Times enthused. The school could house 1,600 boys, and was specially built and fortified, so that large elevators could bring cars and heavy equipment into any part of the building. The school was equipped with special ventilation systems to purge exhaust and gas fumes from classrooms, and the auto industry donated equipment and other specialized items specific to the trade.

The school had a four year curriculum, and specifically excluded girls at the time. The boys would be taught basic academic courses, but would primarily be educated in the auto trades. They would start with basic mechanics, batteries and electricity, welding and metal work, and machine shop practices. In their second year and beyond, they could specialize in chassis repair, engine repair, general machine shop, or electrical work, which included batteries, lights, etc. They would all learn the nuances and demands of automotive manufacture, with industry standards and specifics. In their senior year, the boys would concentrate on their specialty, and there was also the opportunity to learn how to become good salesmen, automobile promotion managers or even auto executives.

Graduation from this school was a badge of honor for many young men who went on to work in the many repair shops and garages that appeared in just about every neighborhood, to open their own garages, or get jobs in the many dealerships in Brooklyn. No doubt, when World War II erupted, many a boy from the Auto Trades High School found himself in the Army’s pool of mechanics and repairmen, helping to give rise to the colorful Brooklyn characters found in World War II movies, and American culture.

After World War II ended, America entered years of great post-war prosperity. No longer were the rich kids the only ones who could get around in their own cars; more and more teenagers from all walks of life were driving. During the 1950s, it seemed that everyone wanted to drive, as having a car was now an iconic American necessity, for people of all ages. While that was not quite as true in NYC, as public transportation was still the favored way to get around, having a driver’s license was now becoming a rite of passage. By the early 1950s, the entire country had programs in high schools for driver’s education, as highway safety became a national issue.

But teaching driving in a large city is not only difficult and expensive in terms of having enough cars, it’s also problematic in finding places safe and isolated enough for beginning drivers to practice. Most urban schools do not have large parking lots, or fields or lots to practice in. Auto insurance companies had a huge incentive to promote safe driving, so in 1953, the Aetna Insurance Company, based in Hartford, Ct., came up with simulators that could be used in the classrooms.

The Brooklyn High School for Automotive Trades received the nation’s first fifteen Aetna Driveotrainers, simulated cars that had all of the necessary equipment in operating a car, including gas, break and clutch pedals, steering wheels, gear shafts, etc. The machinery was all hooked up to a monitoring system that recorded every turn of the wheel , or push of a pedal, and printed out a report for each student. The students navigated different driving courses displayed on a screen in the front of the room, which had printed instructions for various tasks, such as turning, parking, passing, stopping for lights, merging onto highways, etc. The students also learned emergency situations and were presented with potential accidents which they had to avoid or prevent.

The Drivotrainers enabled the driving instructor to teach 15 students at a time, instead of taking far fewer students out on the road, at least initially. They could learn basic skills in the classrooms before heading out on the street. Here in Brooklyn, the Drivotrainers were the pet project of Richard O’Connor, the NYC commissioner for Driver’s Education, who got Aetna to donate these machines. He worked with Aetna in Hartford to come up with twenty different training movies that would cover every driving situation. He was a huge proponent of the program. Students came from all over NYC to driver’s ed courses at the Automotive High School, and the program was in use until at least the late 1960s, when new computer technology was put to use in the program. Do they even offer driver’s ed anymore? GMAP

The car was an important part of life in Brooklyn, so much so that the needs of the industry were reflected in a specialized school. Automobile Row was also an important part of the finances and future of the city. No one realized that more than the men who opened new car dealerships along the row, marrying the auto business and real estate. There was money to be made. Next time we’ll look at a man named Eli Bishop who was one of the first to “cross-over” from real estate to cars. He did quite well.

On May 19th, Morgan Munsey and I will be leading a walking tour of Automobile Row for the Municipal Arts Society. We’ll be exploring the Western end of Crown Heights along Bedford Avenue. Please join us. See the MAS website for details.