There used to be so many of these magnificent public schools designed by CBJ Snyder a century ago and we are always intrigued on what replaced them in the latter half of the 20th century. The top photo shows PS 89 where it once stood on the southwest corner of Lenox Avenue, between 134th and 135th Street circa 1920. Out all the Harlem school buildings that we have seen thus far from Mr. Snyder, this one seems to be one of the more intricate mash of European styles. The lower photo show the same corner today which currently has a 16 story coop tower standing on the very spot. Built in 1963, the building must have replaced the original school at a time when everything modern was a fad and the old was disdained. The ironic thing today is that many of these mid-century buildings don't quite hold up with age as much as their early century counterparts. It's too bad that adaptive reuse was not in the vernacular back then for the original would have been a pretty grand apartment complex today.
Archival photo courtesy of NYPL. Current photo by Ulysses.
There used to be so many of these magnificent public schools designed by CBJ Snyder a century ago and we are always intrigued on what replaced them in the latter half of the 20th century. The top photo shows PS 89 where it once stood on the southwest corner of Lenox Avenue, between 134th and 135th Street circa 1920. Out all the Harlem school buildings that we have seen thus far from Mr. Snyder, this one seems to be one of the more intricate mash of European styles. The lower photo show the same corner today which currently has a 16 story coop tower standing on the very spot. Built in 1963, the building must have replaced the original school at a time when everything modern was a fad and the old was disdained. The ironic thing today is that many of these mid-century buildings don't quite hold up with age as much as their early century counterparts. It's too bad that adaptive reuse was not in the vernacular back then for the original would have been a pretty grand apartment complex today. Archival photo courtesy of NYPL. Current photo by Ulysses.
Just wanted to thank you for this posting and all the others. I have learned so much from this blog. Thank you for doing what you do.
ReplyDelete"Built in 1963, the building must have replaced the original school at a time when everything modern was a fad and the old was disdained."
ReplyDeleteNot to nitpic, but I wouldn't quite phrase things this way. The historic preservation movement has a long history and there were certainly buildings being preserved since long before the 1960s. The difference is that we keep changing our minds about what is worthy of preservation. One theme is that architecture for the working class is typically distained by the upper class (who value "historic" architecture) until long after those people have begun to move on. It gains cache a generation later.
There are 50s bungalows and drive-thru commercial architecture in Queens being mowed down and replaced with modern construction all the time and nobody's weeping about it today. We'll probably look back on this much the same way we see urban renewal in places like Harlem.
Even though there were preservation movements prior to the mid 60's, the Landmarks Preservation Commission did not form until the destruction of the original Penn Station in 1963. The government did not really support preservation until the this committee was formed. Face it, 90% of what was built in the 1960's was garbage.
ReplyDeleteGreat photograph of the school -- where in the NYPL collection do you find the wonderful images you use on the blog?
ReplyDelete