PS 99 Elementary class in 1929 via NYTimes Historically, most schools in East Harlem were public schools run by the New York City Board of Education, which was established in 1842. As the population of New York skyrocketed at the turn of the 20th century, the need for new schools increased dramatically. One cannot begin telling the stories of these beautiful buildings without mentioning the man that responded to the dire educational needs of an ever-expanding metropolis by designing, building, and managing hundreds of public schools across the city: Charles B.J. Snyder. Though not all schools featured in this tour were built by C.B.J. Snyder, his efforts to reform New York’s education system during the Progressive-era produced a colossal shift in the City’s priorities for children’s educational attainment regardless of class or creed. The New York Times called him "a builder of dreams, in brick and mortar." “Snyder presided over the greatest expansion of schools in the nation’s history. It was not uncommon for him to open more schools in a single year than existed in most other American cities. His buildings were big enough to hold the waves of immigrants flooding into the city, to have indoor play areas for the kids and auditoriums for the community, and light and air, the values of an age made real in brick, mortar and steel.” via New York Times

Portrait of C.B.J. Snyder, date unknown via Village Preservation.org C.B.J. Snyder served as Superintendent of School Buildings for the New York City Board of Education between 1891 and 1923. As a reformer, his designs often combined Collegiate Gothic style with a modern H-shape site plan that encouraged open air circulation, light-filled classrooms, and social recreation—elements intended to address congestion, disease, and social inequalities of the time. Incredibly, during his 32-year tenure as Superintendent, Snyder designed and supervised the construction of over 400 public schools in New York. Though not all his schools had the famous H shape, they were all distinctive for their elegance, incorporating elements of the Beaux-Arts, Flemish Renaissance, Italian palazzo, and Collegiate Gothic styles.

Public School 99: 410 East 100th Street Margaret Knox Junior High (JHS 99) was built in 1925 by C.B.J. Snyder. Cicely Tyson, who lived in East Harlem during her childhood, mentions in her autobiography that she and her siblings attended junior high here.

In an oral history project by Fordham University, Professor Delores Walters remembers attending PS 99 until the fourth grade. Delores described PS 99 as a “very rigorous school, an all-Black school, very competitive” where most of her teachers were Jewish and as committed to teaching as the students were to learning. When the school closed in 2006, it was known as the Julia De Burgos Junior High School.

The structure now houses Innovation Charter High School, Success Academy Harlem 3 Lower, and MS 224 Manhattan East School for Arts & Academics. The gymnasium interior has changed very little since this 1926 capture.

Public School 109: 215 East 99th Street Finished in 1901, the former PS 109 is another C.B.J. Snyder school that once accommodated over 2000 students. Decommissioned as a school in 1995, it sat boarded up until 2015, when it was restored and converted into 100% affordable live/work housing for artists. El Barrio’s Artspace/PS109 has 90 units and 10,000 SF of community facility space for arts organizations.

It was officially designated as an individual landmark in March 2018 by the NYC Landmark Preservation Commission. You can read their full Designation Report here.

St. Francis De Sales Parochial School: 111 East 97th Street Built sometime around 1923, an article from the Real Estate Record and Builder's Guide from the previous year mentions the plans for the school as a "4-sty and basement terra cotta, brick, steel and reinforced concrete parochial school, 75x100 ft." The owner, "Rev. P. J. Hayes, Bishop," expected to pay $150,000 for construction.

Closed in 2007 due to falling enrollment and internal debt, the school functioned for nearly a century as an affordable private Catholic school. Run by the Sisters of the Holy Union, it was considered by many to be an exemplary educational option for working class East Harlem residents. The building was bought by the prestigious Marymount School, a private Catholic school for girls, and was recently transformed into a gymnasium, science labs and arts classrooms. Tuition now costs $55,000 a year.

Public School 121: 232 East 103rd Street Like PS 109 on East 99th Street, this historic school at 232 East 103rd Street is the only remaining historic structure left in the mega-block creation encompassing NYCHA's Washington Housing Complex. Check out this Google Earth image of the two schools. Built in 1907, this nearly 115-year-old façade is in remarkable shape. The building is still used as a public school but was renamed PS 38. In 1981, the founder of the "I Have A Dream" Foundation, Eugene M. Lang returned to PS 121, where he attended 50 years earlier, to address a class of graduating sixth graders. He intended to tell the students, “Work hard and you’ll succeed.” But on the way to the podium, the school principal told Lang that three-quarters of the school’s students would probably never finish high school, prompting Lang to make an impromptu change to his speech: he promised college tuition to every sixth grader who stayed in high school and graduated. Ninety percent (90%) graduated from high school and 60% of those kids went to college (via I Have A Dream Foundation).

Public School 168: 316 East 105th Street Finished in the early 1900s, this school accommodated over 2000 students. It's another great example of C.B.J Snyder’s H-shape site plan that encouraged open air circulation, light-filled classrooms, and social recreation—again, design elements that intended to reform congestion, disease, and social inequalities of the time. “There is not a dark corner in the whole structure,” stated the famous social reformer, Jacob Riis, of Snyder's H-shaped school design. Snyder built his schools with windows that made up nearly sixty percent of the buildings’ facades. The building is currently occupied by East River Family Center, a shelter and resource center serving local families who have experienced homelessness and housing instability. The façade has been altered very little in 120 years. As with El Barrio’s Artspace/PS 109, there is an obvious adaptability of the Snyder schools for new uses when their educational uses are discontinued.

Neighborhood Music School: 238 East 105th Street In October 1921, the Board of Trustees purchased a building at 238 East 105th Street from the Jewish Guild for the Blind.

In the coming decades, the structure would later be replaced by a larger modern building designed in the International Style. Constructed with the financial support of Mrs. John Hubbard, the new building was re-dedicated with the new name of Manhattan School of Music.

As surrounding properties became available, additional campus buildings were added, including the Hubbard Auditorium, built in 1938. The building is now home to Park East High School.

Public School 72: 1674 Lexington Avenue Here is Urban Archive's great summary of this gorgeous LPC-designated landmark: Constructed as Public School 72, this neo-Grec structure is one of the oldest intact school buildings in Manhattan. Built to accommodate the growing immigrant population of East Harlem, it was the first full block school building in the city. Its architect, David I. Stagg, was Superintendent of Public School Buildings from 1872 to 1886. The original portion of the building was completed in 1882 and the annex (by C.B.J. Snyder) was added in 1913. The Board of Education closed the school in 1975, and for the next two decades it provided classroom and office space for various institutions. In 1994-95, the building was converted to a cultural center. The conversion was spearheaded by El Taller Boricua, an arts organization founded in 1969 to bring attention and relevancy to artists who were being ignored and systematically marginalized by the cultural gatekeepers of the times. Named in honor of the Puerto Rican teacher, journalist and, poet who died in East Harlem, the Julia de Burgos Latino Cultural Center is home to El Taller Boricua (the Puerto Rican Workshop), the Heritage School and Los Pleneros de la 21.

Public School 171:19 East 103rd Street Built in 1900, this C.B.J Snyder H-shaped school is still functioning today as PS 171 (Patrick Henry HS).

Check out this great photo of PS 171, dated 1920.

Benjamin Franklin High School: 280 Pleasant Avenue Though not as old as the other historic schools in the area, the Benjamin Franklin High School is a great example of Georgian Revival style with Neoclassical elements. Built in 1942 by architect Eric Kebbon, the school’s historic significance is also noteworthy in its intended function. In the 1930s, the pioneering sociologist and educator, Leonard Covello (who grew up in East Harlem), noticed the need for a high school in East Harlem. Recognizing the deeply embedded cultural identities of his community, he started the school as an experimental community-centered high school that encouraged both students and the broader community to think about social and political reform. Courses also included intercultural education programs that taught students how to appreciate other ethnic and cultural groups. Over the years, the school became a pillar of the East Harlem community and a model for racial and cultural integration programs during the end of school segregation. In 1983 the school evolved into a specialized school, the Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics. Visit their website for an awesome aerial video of the school grounds! The school was designated as an individual landmark by the NYC Landmark Preservation Commission in 2018. You can read LPC's full report here.

Public School 102 (Jacques Cartier), 315 E 113th St Built in 1913, a 100,000 SF addition was constructed in 1955. Today, the building still functions as PS 102, with the historic façade still completely intact. However, an architectural inspection report from 2020 states that the school is in poor condition with a lot of interior deterioration.

Public School 101: 141 East 111th Street Built in 1910, the school functioned as a public kindergarten and was likely built by C.B.J Snyder. A NYC Department of Education Architecture Inspection report lists a 50,000 SF building addition constructed in 1927.

Public School 57: 176 East 115th Street Though we could not find much information on this sizable school building, we know the school, now demolished, was one of the earlier-built Manhattan public schools, with construction dating ca. 1908. Though the site is still in use as PS 57, the original building was replaced in 1964 with a contemporary design.

Check out this amazing photo from NYC Dept of Records of the back of the building, facing 114th Street. The photo was published in the 1908 edition of the City's "Annual Financial and Statistical Report."

Public School 24: 22 East 128th Street Built in 1905, PS 24 is now Harlem Renaissance High School. The building was listed in "fair" condition by a recent architectural inspection report, noting many areas of exterior deterioration.

Public School 39: 243 East 125th Street Now a parking lot, the former Grammar School 39 was built around 1882 and was one of the first schools built in East Harlem.

Though we have little information about when the school was closed and demolished, an article from the New York Times dated Friday, December 6th, 1968 mentions a Teacher's Union action in front of the school. An excerpt from the article reads: "A school in an experimental Harlem district, where nine union teachers were barred on Wednesday for alleged insubordination to district officials, was closed for two hours yesterday to avert a police breakup of another demonstration" The photo above has the following caption: "Blockade: Parents and their supporters massed in the doorway at P.S. 39 in Harlem yesterday morning to prevent union teachers from entering. The administrator of the local school district later ordered the school closed."

Public School 78: 362 Pleasant Avenue Another ornate design of C.B.J. Snyder, this castle-like structure was demolished in the mid-20th century. In 1969, PS 206 Jose Celso Barbosa was built adjacent to the original site. Eventually, the vacant lot was repurposed into the new school’s athletic fields and courts.

Public School 85: 346 E 117th Street PS 85 was built in the Georgian Revival Style in 1904 and designed by C.B.J. Snyder. The school's most notable graduate was Vito Marcantonio (1937-1954), who was born and raised in East Harlem and who went on to become East Harlem’s Congressman.

PS 85 ended its function as a school in 1990. Local residents remember that the building was then turned into an adult film studio. The tenants were evidently pressured to relocate, and the building was left in significant disrepair. In the early 2000s, the building was purchased by a developer and sat vacant for some time. It was finally converted to residential use, opening recently as the East River Lofts.

Public School 80: 415 East 120th Street Built in 1923, this C.B.J. Snyder building functioned as an elementary school until 1972. It then served as a neighborhood health center and currently includes the city-owned East Harlem Multi-Service Center. Recently it has received some exciting preservation and development news. This summer, the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development selected Ascendant Neighborhood Development, one of Landmark East Harlem's coalition members, to rehabilitate the Multi-Service Center and include a new residential building with 100% affordable units. Known as "The Beacon," the 250-unit building will also include 75 homes reserved for formerly homeless households. And with that, we'll wrap up our Back to School Series story tour. If you have any comments or historic tidbits to add, send us a message with our Landmark Suggestions and Comments Form We hope you enjoyed exploring!