Chelsea, 19th Street Between Sixth and Seventh Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2010 ………………….…………… ………………….. click to enlarge

On the north corner is Apex Technical School.  I wish they had consulted me when they were naming this school.  I know that having your name start with A is advantageous for sales, but New York is better for search results.  And if it must start with A, how about Abercrombie Technical School or Abbott Technical School or even Aaron Technical School, all of which sound so much less cheesy than Apex.




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Street level view with students.  The signs you can see through the windows say "Electrical and Advanced Electrical", "Construction Skills - Plumbing, Carpentry and Electrical" and "Auto Body Repair".  I think I'd pick Electrical.

West Village, 10th Street Between Greenwich and Washington Streets

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I must say this sounds like a wonderful school.  It almost makes me want to get married and have another family so I could send my children there.  There I go again, believing what I read.  You read it and see what you think:  Village Community School.

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Chelsea, 16th Street Between Eighth and Ninth Avenues

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I shouldn't have been surprised to see this building of the School of Visual Arts; they have buildings scattered all over lower Manhattan, including Gramercy, the Lower East Side, and West Chelsea.  This particular building houses the BFA (Batchelor of Fine Arts) Department.  If you'd like to know more about their real estate holdings, go here.  An interesting way to build a campus as compared to the NYU way and the Columbia way.

By the way, the SVA website linked to above is remarkably ugly and unpleasant to use.  I would think twice about attending an art school with such a poor website.

Washington Heights, 193rd Street at Audubon Avenue

Mary Sargent © 2010 ……………………….. click to enlarge

Here again is the impressive George Washington High School seen from 193rd Street, just quietly tucked away in a corner of Washington Heights.

If you checked out the link I gave you two nights ago, you know that Fort George Amusement Park was constructed on this site in 1895.  Fires destroyed it in 1911 and 1913, after which, "The park became dominated by dance halls, sleazy taverns, and tawdry entertainments."  In 1920 the High School was constructed and it was goodby to the tawdry entertainments.  Darn.

Washington Heights, Amsterdam Avenue Between 190th and 193rd Streets

Mary Sargent © 2010 ………………….………..…… ………………….. click to enlarge

Okay, now we're back on the Washington Heights walk, briefly interrupted for some snow pics.

Would you believe that these buildings are part (the back part) of George Washington High School?  Here's the front.  According to Wikipedia, Maria Callas attended this high school.  Also Henry Kissenger.  And since they were both born in 1923, they must have attended at the same time.  Can't you just see them as teenagers, holding hands, going to the soda shop after school?

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Upper West Side, 84th Street Between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues

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This is the playground next to the Sarah Anderson Elementary School, and that boy is making it hard for you to believe my claim that I was getting really cold.  But I was!  He's more active than I was.  In fact, I was standing still.  Anyway, whether you believe me or not, I was on the lookout for hot coffee and a place to sit down.

Upper West Side, 84th Street Between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues

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So the building we saw last night with no windows is P.S. 9, Sarah Anderson Elementary School.  I thought I would just complain about the architecture and leave it at that, but I discovered there is much to know about this school.  I was entraced to see that the Wikipedia article (follow the above link) has a lengthy discussion of the architecture (wouldn't you know it was built in the 1960's).  It also states that before this block was razed in preparation for building this school and the Louis D. Brandeis High School across the street (see below), it was known as "The Worst Block in New York."  As for who Sarah Anderson was, she was a single mother of 3 children, and a "beloved school paraprofessional" for whom the school was named when she died in 1981 at the age of 59.


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The Louis D. Brandeis High School.  Quick, who was Louis Brandeis?  U.S. Supreme Court Justice from 1916-1939, and,

as Justice William O. Douglas wrote, “Brandeis was a militant crusader for social justice whoever his opponent might be. He was dangerous not only because of his brilliance, his arithmetic, his courage. He was dangerous because he was incorruptible. . . [and] the fears of the Establishment were greater because Brandeis was the first Jew to be named to the Court."

Upper West Side, 84th Street Between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue

Mary Sargent © 2009 ………………….                    … ………………….. click to enlarge

Now, walking back to Broadway on 84th Street, we see Rodeph Sholom Day School; it's around the corner from the synagogue and might even back up to it.  This is one of three locations for the day school; this one is for pre-kindergarten through first grade.  Imagine being in first grade and being top dog!  Looking down at all those babies.  When I was in first grade, that was the absolute bottom.  We looked up to the mighty sixth graders.

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Upper East Side, 71st Street Between Third and Second Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2009 ………………….. click to enlarge


I hate to show you this skewed photograph but you do need to know that Marymount Manhattan College is on this block.  Although the college is small, (about 2,000 students), it seems as if there should be more to it than this one building, but, if so, where is it?

Marymount used to be affiliated with the Catholic Church but now isn't, due to the decision to bestow an honorary degree (in 2005) on Senator Hillary Clinton, " one of Congress's most outspoken and strident advocates of abortion rights."  The college was sticken from "The Official Catholic Directory."  Well done, Marymount!  Also Hillary!  Read about it here.


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Hudson Heights, Broadway at 186th Street

Mary Sargent © 2009 …………xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx………………………….. click to enlarge

This is the Police Officer Michael John Buczek School. Whew. Imagine a first grader trying to tell someone what school he goes to.

Michael Buczek was a young police officer who was killed by drug lords in 1988 in Washington Heights. His father, Ted Buczek, responded by throwing himself into community work and, among other things, founding the Police Officer Michael John Buczek Little League. Here is the concluding paragraph of a 2008 Press Release from the Police Officer Michael John Buczek Foundation.

And on the 19th Annual Opening Day, Saturday, April 5, because of his efforts, "Mr.B." [Ted Buczek] will see his dream come true, and watch the children of Washington Heights, coached by officers of the 34th precinct, playing on the state-of-the-art Police Officer Michael J. Buczek Field in Highbridge Park, in the shadow of Yankee Stadium, in a safe community. A field of dreams for all.

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Manhattanville, 126th Street Between Morningside and St. Nicholas Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2009 ………. click to enlarge

This is the last block in Manhattanville and it's a short one, so I'll take care of it in one posting. I couldn't seem to resist white buildings against blue skies today. Here's another.





Mary Sargent © 2009 …………….. click to enlarge

Just down the block is this imposing building with no clue as to what it is. I played a guessing game until I got to the corner and saw the front of it.




Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

PS 157! An elementary school, at that. That is, it was. It closed in 1975 and then gradually deteriorated until it was rebuilt as apartments in 1989. Don't you just wish you could live in something other than a boring old apartment building? This school looks like a good bet, with its 15' ceilings and beautiful windows. I don't know if it's still true, but in 2000 this was called the gay building because so many gays had moved in.

Streetscapes had a good article on this school in 1989. It seems that prior to the 1890s, schools were built in a factory style as befitted the idea of "the school life of a child as a grinding, manufacturing process . . . ." A new school architect, Charles B. J. Snyder, was appointed in 1891 and began building schools that would have an uplifting effect on the city's poor and working class sections, this being one of them.

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Greenwich Village, 11th Street Between Sixth and Fifth Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

The New School, (main entrance on 12th Street). The most interesting thing I read about it was that it was founded in 1919, at least in part, as a result of Columbia's joining in the national paranoia and fear during and after World War I. One of the founders was Charles Beard who resigned from Columbia in protest of its firing of a noted professor, James McKeen Cattell, for his opposition to military conscription.

Ninety years old now. Can we still call it New?

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West Village, 11th Street Between Seventh and Sixth Avenues

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Spring! Doesn't this remind you of a field of daffodils?



Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge


This is Greenwich Village School, grades K-5.

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Manhattanville, Convent Avenue Between 131st and 133rd Streets

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Now on the other side of the street is the South Campus of City College. That's City College of City University of New York. Sometimes known as City. The South Campus is the new campus, having been acquired in 1953, whereas the North Campus was constructed in 1906. The University, of course, is older than that (1847) and you are welcome to read all about it in Wikipedia.

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Hudson Square, King Street Between Varick Street and Sixth Avenue

Mary Sargent © 2008 ……... click to enlarge

Posting in haste tonight. This important looking building used to be Public School 8, built in 1886, "a lively Queen Anne" according to the AIA Guide. Now a condominium.

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Upper West Side, West End Avenue Between 96th and 95th Streets

This afternoon I took a bag of clothes to the Salvation Army on West 96th Street. Afterwards, since I needed a short photowalk, I walked down West End Avenue to 86th Street, then back over to the subway on 86th and Broadway. Ten blocks isn't necessarily a short photowalk, but this being West End Avenue, I knew I wouldn't be dallying long.

It was a real November day, gray and bleak. Perfect for West End. See?


Mary Sargent © 2008 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

This shrouded building is the Emily Dickinson School, grades K-5.

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Washington Heights, 182nd Street Between Amsterdam and Audubon Avenues

down
down
Meanwhile on the other side of the street:



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Mary Sargent © 2008 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

The last three photos are of the Annex to the Eleanor Roosevelt Junior High School. Time to replace? Past time? Never should have been built?

see

See map.

Washington Heights, Amsterdam Avenue Between 181st and 182nd Street; 182nd Street Between Amsterdam and Audubon Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2008 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

After going as far east as I could go on 181st Street, I turned back, and here at Amsterdam Avenue, I spied my destination: the Eleanor Roosevelt Junior High School. I mean, a corner of my destination; it's there on the right side of the photo.



Mary Sargent © 2008 …………………………………….. click to enlarge


Here it is. One block long. This one's for you, Gladys.




Mary Sargent © 2008 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

This friendly student told me that, yes, this is the main entrance. It is a modest entrance for a block long building. She then said I should go in and turn left and walk down the hall to a room where they would answer all my questions. Okay. But once inside, it seemed more sensible to talk to the guard instead. I asked him my one question - did he know when the building was built. He said, I think the 60s. Or maybe the 30s. Hmm. When I went back out the friendly student showed me where the date was carved into the building: 1965.




Mary Sargent © 2008 ………. click to enlarge


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Chelsea, Seventh Avenue at 27th Street

Mary Sargent © 2008 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

This is one of the buildings of the Fashion Institute of Technology, more commonly known as F.I.T. It is but one of the buildings on this "campus" which extends to Eighth Avenue and spans 27th Street, but it is the only one we will see today. Lunch awaits.

I understand all the buildings look different. This one appears to be from the school of Grim. Perhaps it is meant to intimidate those of us with no style. At some future date I will dress myself in black and infiltrate and bring you back a report.

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Washington Heights, Broadway at 156th Street

Mary Sargent © 2008 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Doggone it, I meant to put this one up last night, so you could see the building from the front. This is at the end of the walk after I'd modified it and gone around and come back up on the other side of Broadway. By this time, it has started to get dark. Tomorrow night, I'll pick this up in proper sequence so it'll get light again. You can do anything on a computer.

This is the part of the complex which houses Boricua College.

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