When the City Hall was opened the courts were transferred to that building. The room long occupied by Justice Courtney was used by the Supreme and county courts. A small room opposite, now occupied by the Bureau of Elections, was appropriated for the purpose of holding special terms. The county clerk's office occupied a part of the apartments of the present comptroller. The surrogate's court occupied the Court Street portion of the comptroller's present rooms, whilst the register's office was opposite, in the rooms of the present auditor. The city court was held in the room now used by the city clerk. Hall's Exchange Building, in which the courts had been held, was destroyed in the great fire of 1848, and the courts were, thereupon, transferred to the City Hall. In those days the sheriff lived with his family in the jail on Raymond Street. If the city was forced to look to the building of its penal institutions and courts of justice, institutions of another kind were springing into being. In 1854 the Brooklyn Female Academy became the Packer Collegiate Institute for Girls; and in the same year a boy's academy was established, with the title of the Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute. The development of these important educational institutions has been one of the most gratifying incidents in the life of the city. As early as 1848 there had been serious talk of the civic union of Williamsburgh and Brooklyn. The village of Williamsburgh was incorporated in 1827. Its boundaries then were: "Beginning at the bay, or river, opposite to the town of Brooklyn, and running thence easterly along the division line between the towns of Bushwick and Brooklyn, to the lands of Abraham A. Remsen; thence northerly by the same to a road or highway, at a place called Sweed's Fly; thence by the said highway to the dwelling-house, late of John Vandervoort, deceased; thence in a straight line northerly, to a small ditch or creek, against the meadow of John Skillman; thence by said creek to Norman's Hill; thence by the middle or centre of Norman's Hill to the East River; thence by the same to the place of beginning." The first officers of the Board of Trustees were Noah Waterbury, president; Abraham Meserole, secretary; and Lewis Sanford, treasurer. In 1829 Williamsburgh had a population of 1007. In 1835 Williamsburgh and Bushwick together had a population of 3314. It was in this year that the "Williamsburgh Gazette" was started. Within a few years came the Williamsburgh Lyceum, the Houston Street Ferry, the "Williamsburgh Democrat," and a Bible Society.