The Hatching Cat of Gotham

In 1881, George Ingraham Seney, one of Brooklyn’s most generous philanthropists, donated $100,000 and a large plot of land encompassing 16 lots bounded by 7th and 8th avenues and 6th and 7th streets. Plans were drawn up for a new hospital, which was incorporated as the Methodist Episcopal Hospital of the City of Brooklyn, an known as the Seney Hospital, in memory of George’s Methodist minister father. Today it’s called the New York Methodist Hospital of Brooklyn, although none of the original nine buildings of the complex remain.