P.S. 157
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P.S. 157 is a historic school building located at 327 St. Nicholas Avenue between West 126th and West 127th Streets in the
Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater ...
neighborhood of
Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
,
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
. It was built from 1896 to 1899 and was designed by
C. B. J. Snyder Charles B. J. Snyder (November 4, 1860 – November 14, 1945) was an American architect, architectural engineer, and mechanical engineer in the field of urban school building design and construction. He is widely recognized for his leadership, i ...
in the
Renaissance Revival style Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th-century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range of ...
. It ceased being a school in 1975, and was converted to rental apartments in 1993.


History

P.S. 157 – "P.S." stands for "Public School" – signified a philosophical change in school design from what the ''Real Estate Record and Guide'' described as a tradition of "the school life of a child as a grinding, manufacturing process to which the factory style of building is eminently suitable." In 1891 Snyder took over as chief architect for the city's schools from George Debevois, whose buildings the ''Guide'' called "warehouses" that were a "civic disgrace." Work on the school began in 1896, and it opened in 1899 to 1,974 students in 45 classrooms. Unlike Debevois' "factories", P.S. 157's design is derived from French and Flemish civic architecture. The limestone, brick and
terra cotta Terracotta, also known as terra cotta or terra-cotta (; ; ), is a clay-based Vitrification#Ceramics, non-vitreous ceramicOED, "Terracotta""Terracotta" MFA Boston, "Cameo" database fired at relatively low temperatures. It is therefore a term used ...
building features dormers and a red tile roof, and could pass for a group of row houses if it was smaller in scale. The building functioned as a school until 1975, when it became vacant, and was subject to vandalism. The drive to rehabilitate the building and covert it into apartments for low- and middle-income families began in the late 1970s, led by New York state's Harlem Urban Development Corporation and the city's Department of Housing, Preservation and Development. Work began on the project c.1989Gray, Christopher
"Public School 157; A Conversion to Serve Another Generation's Needy"
''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' (April 18, 1989) and was completed in 1993.Alberts, Hana R
"Live In A Historic Converted Harlem School For $2,300/Month"
''CurbedNY'' (February 11, 2014) The building now consists of 73 rental apartments, some of them rent stabilized, on five floors. P.S. 157 was added to the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
on December 10, 1982.


See also

*
National Register of Historic Places listings in Manhattan above 110th Street List of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Manhattan above 110th Street This is intended to be a complete list of properties and districts listed on the National Register of Historic Places above 110th Street in the New York C ...


References

Notes School buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Manhattan Renaissance Revival architecture in New York City School buildings completed in 1899 1899 establishments in New York City {{Manhattan-school-stub