Erasmus Hall High School was a four-year public high school located at 899–925 Flatbush Avenue between Church and Snyder Avenues in the Flatbush neighborhood of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It was founded in 1786 as Erasmus Hall Academy, a private institution of higher learning named for the scholar Desiderius Erasmus, known as Erasmus of Rotterdam, a Dutch Renaissance humanist and Catholic Christian theologian. The school was the first secondary school chartered by the New York State Regents. The clapboard-sided, Georgian-Federal-style building, constructed on land donated by the Flatbush Reformed Dutch Church, was turned over to the public school system in 1896.
Around the start of the 20th century, Brooklyn experienced a rapidly growing population, and the original small school was enlarged with the addition of several wings and the purchase of several nearby buildings. In 1904, the Board of Education began a new building campaign to meet the needs of the burgeoning student population. The Superintendent of School Buildings, architect C. B. J. Snyder, designed a series of buildings to be constructed as needed, around an open quadrangle, while continuing to use the old building in the center of the courtyard. The original Academy building, which still stands in the courtyard of the current school, served the students of Erasmus Hall in three different centuries. Now a designated New York City Landmark and listed in the National Register of Historic Places, the building is a museum exhibiting the school's history. ()
Due to poor academic scores, the city closed Erasmus Hall High School in 1994, turning the building into Erasmus Hall Educational Campus and using it as the location for five separate small schools.
History
Erasmus Hall Academy Erasmus Hall Academy was founded as a private school by Reverend John H. Livingston and Senator John Vanderbilt in 1786 and became the first secondary school chartered by the New York State Board of Regents.Taylor, B. Kimberly. "Erasmus Hall High School and Academy of the Arts" in Jackson, Kenneth R. (ed.) The Encyclopedia of New York City (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995) p.382 Land was donated by the Flatbush Dutch Reformed Church for the building and contributions were collected for “an institution of higher learning,” from leading citizens such as Aaron Burr, Alexander Hamilton, Peter Lefferts and Robert Livingston.
The wood-framed, clapboard-sided, Georgian and Federal style school building, two and one-half stories tall with hipped roof, was opened in 1787 with 26 students. Through the years, various wings were added to the academy building and later removed.
Erasmus Hall Academy began accepting female students in 1801, and in 1803 it incorporated the village school of Flatbush. The village evolved into a city, and started a public school system that competed with Erasmus for its student body. As a result, there was a steady decline in its enrollment until in 1896 enrollment was reduced to 150 boys and girls, up from the 105 boys who were registered in the school in 1795.Chronicles, 1906–1937, Pages 18–19. The board of trustees decided to donate the academy to the public school system with the following resolution by the board of trustees:
That the Board of Trustees offer the grounds of the Academy to the Board of Education of the City of Brooklyn upon the following conditions, viz: In consideration of the gift of the land the Board of Education are to erect and maintain upon said land a High School Building of the same character and grade as other High School Buildings in the City of Brooklyn.Chronicles, 1906, Page 21.
Erasmus Hall High School
Following the agreement with the Erasmus Hall Board of Trustees, the Board of Education of the City of Brooklyn requested proposals for a design for a new school building. Twenty architects responded with plans, several of which were published in contemporary architectural periodicals.These included a French-inspired design for a tall, H-plan building topped by a mansard and cupola, by F. P. Dinkelberg, published in American Architect and Building News (February 5, 1898) and two more elaborate plans for extensive campuses, one by Mowbry & Uffinger and the other by J. G. Glover and H.C. Carrel, both published in Architecture and Building (October 8, 1898) and (April 23, 1898). According to minutes of the New York City school board on April 4, 1899, (301) plans for a new high school drawn by David W. Wilson and Jacob Thinnes, Jr. had been approved by the Brooklyn Board of Education, but the architects who had submitted plans had not been paid and were threatening to sue. The school board quickly authorized $200 to be paid to each designer.
It soon became clear that none of these plans could be erected for less than a million dollars, and since that was considered too expensive, the project was dropped.Snyder, C.B.J. Snyder. "Annual Report of the Superintendent of School Buildings, 1906", p.299 The Brooklyn Board of Education did however, approve "temporary additions" to the school to accommodate the growing population and purchased additional property to allow more room to build a new school.For the decision to build additions to the existing building, see Minutes of the School Board of the Borough of Brooklyn, 1898 (June 21, 1898) 418. Plans for the addition were created by C.B.J. Snyder. Regarding the purchase of the property, see Minutes of the School Board of the Borough of Brooklyn, 1899, (March 7, 1899 and September 5, 1899) Pages 279–80 and Page 750, respectively.
With the consolidation of the City of New York in 1898, the highly varied needs of schools in all the boroughs came under the purview of the New York City school board. This board had to cope with a sizable number of independently administered school districts, each with its own curricula, grade divisions, educational policies, and standards, and weld them all into a single, uniform educational system. At the same time, New York City was experiencing a huge influx of immigrants (increasing the school registers between 1900 and 1904 by 132,000 pupils),New York City School Buildings, 1806–1956 (New York: Board of Education, 1956) 28. and the schools were expected to help Americanize these new students. New high schools were needed in all the boroughs and the Board of Education authorized large new buildings for Morris High School in the Bronx, DeWitt Clinton High School in The Bronx, Curtis High School in Staten Island, Flushing High School in Queens, and Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn.Morris High School is located in the Morris High School Historic District and Curtis and Flushing High Schools are designated New York City Landmarks.
In the interim, however, before a new building for Erasmus Hall could be constructed, the Board of Education purchased more land along Bedford Avenue near the existing building, and established classrooms in the expansion buildings that were already on the lot.Chronicles, 1906–1937, p.39 They also used classrooms in other schools,Journal of the Board of Education, (1904-05-11) p.819 such as P.S. 977,Stated in the source material, but a number totally out of the normal range of Public School numbers and held half-day classes.Chronicles, 1906, p.150
The modern high school was designed in the Collegiate Gothic style that Snyder used on many of his buildings.
On August 17, 1904, the New York City School Board's Committee on Buildings presented its plans for a new campus for Erasmus Hall High School. It was designed to be constructed around the existing, centrally located buildings, so that classes could continue to be held there until the new buildings were ready. The plan called for a full quadrangle of buildings along the perimeter of the large lot. It was constructed during four periods: 1905–1906, 1909–1911, 1924–1925, and 1939–1940, with the two later buildings supervised by William H. Gompert and Eric Kebbon, respectively. Its buff brick facades have limestone and terra cotta trim and feature central entrance towers with Oriel windows and crenellated parapets, Tudor-arched entrances, label moldings, and large window groupings. The style of Erasmus Hall evolved over the years so that the most recent buildings are simpler, with less ornamentation, but retain the general characteristics of the earlier ones, giving a sense of unity to the entire composition. The first buildings would be constructed along Flatbush Avenue, with others added over time, as the need became clear and funds became available.Charles B.J. Snyder, “Annual Report, 1906,” 299.
Phase One Snyder explained his plans for the first phase as follows:
... A careful study of the matter convinced me that after all it was a good thing for the future of the school that the present one could not be disturbed, for therein lay the suggestion for a design unique in high schools of the country... A quadrangle enclosed by buildings devoted to various departments of school work.
The buildings, therefore, have been designed as a screen across the end of the quadrangle, shutting out the noise and confusion of Flatbush Avenue traffic, the only entrance being through the large arch under the tower, which is placed on the axis of the longer dimension of the plot.Snyder was explaining his practical solution to the problems posed by the fact that the neighborhood around the school was changing from residential to commercial use.
This, as designed, would be called a chapel were it part of a college, but if we may not aspire to this, yet I have thought that it might be known as 'the Hall.' As such the endeavor has been to design a harmonious, impressive room, in a style permeated with history and romance; a place which, of all others, will stand out clearly in the loving memory of the student in after years for his alma mater. Its walls, columns and arches should bear the trophies won in athletic and scholastic contests, there to be preserved and handed down as part of the glorious history of the school.One of Snyder's first priorities was for an adequate assembly hall.He regretted that a gymnasium could not be included in the first part of the building, but he had “the expectation that a proper gymnasium building will be erected in the near future as one of the new group...”. He also admitted that, at that time,
There have been no designs made for this elevation (Bedford Avenue), but the aim has been to have a central tower on the same axis as that on Flatbush Avenue, through the archway in the base of which will be afforded a view of the 'quad' with its greensward, trees, shrubs and vines. What the ultimate design of the various buildings going to make up the group may be, it is, of course, impossible to say, but in designing and planning that portion which you now see approaching completion, I have always intended that the whole should be a graphic illustration of the various phases of the so-called Gothic movement, from the Round Arch to the Flamboyant and on through its later transitional stage.Letter, Charles B.J. Snyder to Mr. E.W. Herter; NYC Board of Education; 1904.
The Committee on Buildings described the first section, estimated to cost not more than $300,000, this way:
It consists of an entrance tower which will be the center of what will afterwards be the completed front on Flatbush avenue; to the left of the tower and connected therewith has been placed the building in the rear portion of which will be the auditorium, classrooms, library, etc. The building will be three and four stories in height.
The basement will contain the gymnasium, placed beneath the auditorium, lecture rooms, baths, toilet room, etc., the boiler or power room being placed beneath the driveway of the tower, one of the turrets of which is utilized for a smoke flue.
The first floor will contain the offices of the principal of the school, two classrooms and the auditorium.