Page 60 - TRINITY 1959

1863— JJ lule the United States was engaged in a great Civil War,

fri/uty School was fighting battles of its own.

Baseball first gained popularity during the Civil War. Trinity
School students were not to be left behind. We are told that while
the School was on Fourteenth Street near Eighth Avenue the boys
played in a neighboring vacant lot. It seems, however, that they
had a bit of difficulty. As an alumnus of the class of 1864 described
the situation, “We did not have football but we had something almost
as ‘rough’ in the shape of ‘scrimmages’ with a ‘gang’ of hoodlums
with whom we had to dispute daily for the possession of the afore­
mentioned vacant lot.’’ One can see that neighborhood problems are
not confined to Ninety-first Street and the twentieth century.

(1863-1890)