Raymond V. Ingersoll Collection

Raymond Vail Ingersoll was born in Corning, New York on April 3, 1875 to Andrew Jackson Ingersoll and Ellen Vail. He attended the local public school followed by Amherst College, where he graduated with honors in 1897. After graduation he moved briefly to Duluth, Minnesota where he taught English and History at Duluth Central High School for the 1897-1898 school year. He enrolled in New York Law School and was admitted to the bar in 1901.

While in law school Ingersoll lived for one year at the University Settlement House on the Lower East Side, where he oversaw the boys' clubs and observed the conditions of tenement housing. His observations assisted in the passage of the Tenement House Act of 1901, which ensured fire safety and sanitation standards for all new construction. From 1900-1902 he lived at the Maxwell House Settlement in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, serving as Headworker and assisting in the unification of five Settlement Houses into the United Neighborhood Guild.

In 1901 Ingersoll began working with the political group Citizens Union on a Fusion campaign against Tammany Hall. Ingersoll appeared on the 1901 Fusion ticket headed by Seth Low and was elected Magistrate at Large for Brooklyn. He served only six months before the position was declared unconstitutional by the State's Supreme Court and Ingersoll was forced to step down. He left Maxwell House in 1902 to open his own law practice, which remained in operation until 1914. In addition to his work as an attorney he remained engaged in politics, serving as the 1909 Campaign Manager for the Fusion ticket and assisting in the Presidential campaign of Woodrow Wilson. He married Marion Crary in 1908.

From 1914-1918 Ingersoll served as the Parks Commissioner for Brooklyn under Mayor John Puroy Mitchel. His administration brought new playgrounds and recreational areas to the borough, with special attention paid to smaller, often overlooked neighborhoods. In February of 1917 he joined the Foyer du Soldat, an official welfare organization charged with providing food, shelter and entertainment for soldiers fighting at the French front in World War I. Ingersoll returned to New York in 1918 and found work as the Secretary and Council for the City Club of New York, an anti-Tammany social club that advocated for higher standards in urban planning. Ingersoll often worked on behalf of the club in Albany, where he developed a working relationship with New York Governor Alfred E. Smith.

Ingersoll left the club in 1924 to serve as the Chairman of Smith's successful re-election campaign. After his re-election, Governor Smith appointed Ingersoll Impartial Chairman to the cloak and suit industry, where he acted as a mediator in industry disputes at the request of Governor Smith and later Governor Roosevelt. He held the position from 1924-1931, during which time he was also appointed to several additional committees which succeeded in further reforming tenement housing laws, securing better pay for teachers and establishing minimum wage laws for women and children in the laundry industry. He also worked on the election campaigns of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Herbert H. Lehman. In 1934 he was appointed President of the Department of Political Science of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences.

In 1934 Ingersoll was elected Brooklyn Borough President on a Fusion ticket led by Fiorello La Guardia, making him responsible for the construction of Brooklyn's sewers, highways and public buildings. In his first year in office he completed the Interborough Parkway, secured land for Brooklyn College's campus, opened the Prospect Park Zoo and added an additional water delivery tunnel. He also made a bid to secure funding from the Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) to complete the construction of the Brooklyn Public Library's Central Branch, which had been sitting partially built for over 20 years. The W.P.A. approved the plan but didn't provide the funds until 1937.

His second year in office brought significant upgrades to the borough's healthcare facilities. New health centers were opened in Bushwick, Red Hook and Williamsburg and ten baby health stations moved to new locations. Ingersoll oversaw the opening of a nurses' home, a new addition and equipment upgrades for Kings County Hospital, as well as the opening of The Brooklyn Cancer Institute. He secured W.P.A. funds for upgrades to the Coney Island, Cumberland Street, Greenpoint and Kingston Avenue Hospitals. 1936 was also a year for improved access to public transportation, with the opening of the Fulton Street subway and Rutgers Street Tunnel, which provided an additional 5.75 track miles in Brooklyn.

In 1937 Ingersoll ran a successful re-election on another Fusion ticket, nominated by the Republican, American Labor, and Progressive Parties. That year he brought six new public schools to Brooklyn, while beginning construction on an additional twelve. He also worked with Parks Commissioner Robert Moses to open fourteen new playgrounds and renovate Prospect and Fort Greene Parks. Ingersoll made improvements to borough sanitation by putting over 300 new garbage trucks on Brooklyn streets and adding over twenty-two miles of sewer lines between 1936 and 1937.

Ingersoll's last two years in office saw the authorization of the Belt Parkway, improvements to borough hospitals, development of the Red Hook Houses and construction of the Brooklyn Public Library's Central branch. He also dedicated a large amount of time working with Fiorello La Guardia and Robert Moses to fight for a Brooklyn-Battery bridge, which he saw as a quicker, cheaper option to a tunnel. Despite the approval of local lawmakers the bridge proposal was struck down by the United States Department of War and President Roosevelt. Ingersoll died before the completion of his second term, on February 4, 1940 following abdominal surgery. He was buried in the Friends Quaker Cemetery in Prospect Park. Although not a member, the Quakers made an exception for his "great contributions to the welfare of the community."

Originally called the Raymond V. Ingersoll Memorial Library, The Brooklyn Public Library's Central branch was dedicated in March 1941. A granite capstone memorial was placed at the library's entrance to commemorate his effort to secure funds for the library's redesign and construction. Ingersoll's widow gifted the remainder of his salary and amount due to his retirement fund, a total of $20,000, to the library.