The last known “colored” school in Manhattan becomes a landmark

For years, New York City Department of Sanitation employees ate lunch in a three-story yellow brick building on West 17th Street in Chelsea without knowing its history: It was once a “colored” school that served black Americans during racial segregation in New York City. York City. public schools in York City.

On Tuesday, city officials voted to build the building, known as Colored School No. 4, to be designated a protected monument, and announced they would provide $6 million in funding to rehabilitate it.

“We stand on the shoulders of the young men and women who attended this school, and while they may be gone, I am honored to ensure that they will never be forgotten,” Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement.

The schoolhouse, at 128 West 17th Street, was built around 1849and became one of the city’s “colored schools” in 1860 eight public elementary schools in Manhattan at the time it served 2,377 black students. The school also housed a night school for black adults.

It was renamed No. 81 Grammar School in 1884, when the city’s Board of Education stopped using the term “colored” in public school names, but it continued to exclusively serve black children until the public school system was 10 years old. later closed the segregated schools. .

Sarah Carroll, the chair of the Landmarks Preservation Commission, said in a statement that the school represented “a difficult and often overlooked period in our city’s history.” The decision to flag it, she said, showed “the importance of preserving the sites that tell the full, sometimes challenging story of our city.”

After the school closed in 1894, the building remained the property of New York City. It has since been used for a variety of purposes, including as a clubhouse for Civil War veterans of the 73rd Regiment. From 1936 to 2015 it was used as a satellite office and locker for the Sanitation Department.

City officials estimate that the building, which has water damage, will be fully restored by 2027. It’s unclear how it will be used after that, but officials said they would work with city authorities and local stakeholders to decide.

The landmark designation and funding for the building’s rehabilitation comes years after Eric K. Washington, a historian, began urging the city to move in 2018 to protect it. More than 2,800 people signed a petition.

While the Sanitation Department had expressed support for the school’s restoration, a spokesperson said last year officials lacked the resources to do so.

Jessica Tisch, the commissioner of the Sanitation Department, said in a statement that Mr. Adams had made “a critical investment in preserving an important piece of black history in New York City.”

Ms. Tisch said officials would do their part to ensure “future generations know both of the damage done at this site and of the resilience of the New Yorkers who resisted it.”

A mob of working-class whites, upset by the first federal draft and the fact that wealthier people were allowed to evade service, attacked the schoolhouse during the July 1863 Draft Riots, according to The New-York Tribune. Teachers barricaded doors and the rioters eventually gave up.

Sarah JS Tompkins Garnet, the principal of the school, was instrumental in fighting back against that mob. She was one of the first black female principals in New York City’s public school system.

The school had several notable graduates, including Susan Elizabeth Frazier, who became the first black teacher to work in an integrated public school, and Walter F. Craig, a classical violinist.

Another former “colored” school, No. 3 in Brooklyn, was designated a landmark late nineties.