Boys High School (NY)

Henry W. Grady High School in Atlanta, Georgia was known as Boys High School from 1924 to 1947
Boys' High School
South face
Location: 832 Marcy Ave, New York, New York
Area: 1.9 acres (7,700 m2)
Built: 1891
Architect: James W. Naughton, C.B.J Snyder
Architectural style: Romanesque, Rundbogenstil
Governing body: Local
NRHP Reference#: 82003361[1]
Added to NRHP: February 25, 1982

Boys High School is an historic and architecturally notable public school building in the Bedford–Stuyvesant, neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. It is regarded as "one of Brooklyn's finest buildings.[2]

Contents

Architecture

The "splendid" Romanesque Revival building is richly decorated in terracotta somewhat in the style of Louis Sullivan.[3] The building is admired for round corner tower, dormers, dormers, soaring campanile. [4]

The building was erected in 1891 on the west side of Marcy Avenue between Putnam Avenue and Madison Street. It was designed by James W. Naughton, Superintendent of Buildings for the Board of Education of the City of Brooklyn.[5] The building is regarded as Naughton's "finest work."[6]

When Boys High was landmarked by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1975, the commission called it "one of the finest Romanesque Revival style buildings in the city."[7]

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 25, 1982.

School

In 1975, the same year the building was landmarked, Boys High merged with Girls High School to become Boys and Girls High School.[7] Boys and Girls High School immediately moved to a new building at Fulton Street and Utica Avenue.[7] Notable Boys High alumni include Norman Mailer, Isaac Asimov, Congressman Emanuel Celler, Aaron Copland, basketball star Connie Hawkins, and William Levitt, developer of Levittown.[8]

The school was a college preparatory program with high academic standards. Congressman Emanuel Celler described Boys High in his autobiography, "I went to Boys' High School — naturally. I say "naturally" because Boys' High School then, as now, was the high school of scholarships. Boys of Brooklyn today will tell you, "It's a hard school." It was highly competitive..."[9]

Another Boys High graduated remembered that "I went to Boys High School in Brooklyn, a great school. It was out of the classic tradition. I guess eighty percent of the student body had to take Latin — we didn't have to; we elected Latin, because we felt it was expected of us.."[10]

Notable alumni

External links

References

  1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2009-03-13. http://nrhp.focus.nps.gov/natreg/docs/All_Data.html. 
  2. ^ "Brooklyn: a state of mind," Michael W. Robbins, Wendy Palitz, Workman Publishing, 2001, p. 228.
  3. ^ http://www.nyc-architecture.com/BES/BED001-BoysHigh%20School.htm "New York Architecture Images, Brooklyn Bedford-Stuyvesant, Boys’ High School"].
  4. ^ "Boys' High School," NYC-AGO website.
  5. ^ An architectural guidebook to Brooklyn, Francis Morrone,Photographs by James Iska, Gibbs Smith, 2001, p. 37.
  6. ^ "Walkabout with Montrose: Master of Schools, JW Naughton," September 8, 2009, Brownstoner.
  7. ^ a b c "Boys High School And Historic Dock Made Landmarks; Boys High And a Dock Are Cited, Joseph P. Fried,October 5, 1975, New York Times.
  8. ^ The big Onion Guide to Brooklyn, Seth kamil and Eric Walker, New York University Press, 2005, p. 64.
  9. ^ You never leave Brooklyn: the autobiography of Emanuel Celler, Emanuel Celler, J. Day Co., 1953, p. 31.
  10. ^ Jewish times: voices of the American Jewish experience, Howard Simons, Anchor Books, 1990, p. 262.
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