A Revolution in Public-School Design:The Legacy ofNew York City’sCharles B. J. Snyder

PS 169 (1900)168/169 x Audubon Avedemolished

PS 169 (1900)168/169th x Audubondemolished

PS 5 (1895), 140 x 141st x Edgecombe x Fred Douglass (demolished)

PS 5 (replaced 1895 building), 140/141 x Edgecombe Ave, es

New buildings and additions

Demolished buildings and additions

Existing buildings and additions

Still Public Schools

Manhattan 107 NBs + 26 addns = 133 38 + 22 = 60 69 + 4 = 73 (55%) 49 – 67%

Bronx 54 NBs + 7 addns = 61 9 + 6 = 15 45 + 1 = 46 (75%) 43 – 93%

Brooklyn 115 NBs + 17 addns = 132 14 + 11 = 25 101 + 6 = 107 (81%) 94 – 88%

Queens 49 NBs + 10 addns = 59 10 + 9 = 19 39 + 1 = 40 (68%) 38 – 95%

Staten Island

19 NBs + 4 addns = 23 6 + 2 = 8 13 + 2 = 15 (65%) 11 – 73%

Totals 344 NBs + 64 addns = 408 77 + 50 = 127 267 + 14 = 281 (69%) 235 – 84%

“The number of contracts to be let for new buildings will not only be the largest in the history of the city but of the world.” 1897Annual Report “The Board of Education is conducting the most extensive building operation of any firm or corporation in the country.” 1904 Annual Report

“Radical and interestinginnovations in schoolhouse architecture,”Edmund Wheelwright, 1899

Snyder “was hired to reform school design and instead created a revolution, setting a standard for municipal architecture that has proved hard to match.” Christopher Gray, New York Times 1998

“Does a silk mill or office building need more light than a school room? Is the work more important? You will answer “no” to both questions. Then let us...have the funds [for buildings] that will not be a menace to the eyesight and health of the pupils and teachers, and a reproach to the system.”

PS 73, 1921 addition to an 1888Building by Naughton, landmarked,Brownsville, Ocean Hill, Brooklyn

Public School 188, 1903, East Houston St.

PS 4 (1898 w 1917 addn)On Crotona Park in the Bronx

MorrisHighSchool, 1904, Bronx

DeWitt Clinton HS (1906), 10th Ave x 58/59th St, later Haaren HS , now John Jay College of Criminal Justice/CUNY

Morris HS (1904)169th St x Boston RdBronx, landmarked

Wadleigh HS for Girls(1902), Harlemlandmarked

FormerStuyvesant HS (1908)15th/16th StX 1st/2nd Ave,landmarked

“The man who builds our beautiful schools” Jacob Riis, The Battle with the Slum (1902)

“Snyder does that which no architect before his time ever did or tried, he “builds them beautiful.” Literally, he found barracks, where he is leaving palaces to the people. “

PS 169 (1900), demolished PS 32 Bronx (1900)

PS 31 Bronx (1900)

Morris High School (1904), Bronx

Erasmus HS (1906/1911), landmarked, Flatbush Ave x Church/Snyder Sts.

Flushing HS (1915), landmarked

Public School 165 (1900), 108/108 x Broadway/Amsterdam

PS 159 (1900)119/120 x 2/3rd demolished

PS 119 (1901), 133rd/134th x ACPowell/Fred Douglass, demolished

PS 170 (1901), 111th/112th x 5th/Lenox, demolished

PS 109 (1901), 99th/100th x 2nd/3rd, NRHP

PS 179 (1901, 1995), 101st/102nd x Columbus/Amsterdam

Wadleigh HS for Girls (1902)

114/115th St x 7/8th Ave

Landmarked

Now Wadleigh Secondary School for the Performing and Visual Arts

PS 184 (1902), 116th/117th x 5th/Lenox, demolished

PS 90 (1907), 147th/148th x ACPowell/Fred Douglass

PS 81 (1908), 119th/120th x ACPowell/Fred Douglass

PS 100 (1909), 138th/139th x 5th/Lenox, demolished

“We seek to make the school building itself quite as mucha factor in education as the textbooks.” New York Tribune 9 April 1892

Wadleigh HS for Girls (1902), Harlem,landmarked

“A beautiful and regal building, the Wadleigh school was a profound reminder to students of individual and collective dignity… All over Harlem Snyder reinforced the notion of the specialness of young citizens with splendid new buildings.”

George Washington HS (1925) Northern Manhattan

Ideas Snyder Schools Convey / Morals They Inculcate Students are worthy; they’re respected as individuals with potential. Education is important and a big enterprise.

Normal College (1913), now Hunter College, UES

PS 27 (1898), overlookingSt. Mary’s Park in the Bronx

Snyder Schools Teach that Students are worthy. Education is important. Education is uplifting.

PS 157 (1900) St Nicholas Ave x 126/127

School is healthy and liberating: it brings balance and light to life; it involves community and abundance.

GS 1 (1898)Henry/Catherine/Oliver

Education, ideals and beauty are for everyone equally, not just for the

privileged.

Public School 6 (1894), 85th x Madison, demolished

Architecture and Building, August 5, 1893New York Times, Oct 1, 1893

PS 158 (1899)77/78 x York Ave

PS 96 (1895)81/82 x York Avedemolished

PS 7 (1893)Hester x Chrystie, se cordemolished

Wadleigh HS for Girls (1902) Harlem Former DeWitt HS for Boys (1906), behind Lincoln Center

“The style symbolized the fact that the education received by New York’s poor and immigrant residents was every bit as good (if not better) than that at the nation’s most presigious schools.” --Andrew Dolkart

PS 186 (1903) , Harlem, abandoned since 1975