Public School 71K
125 Heyward Street | also 115 Heyward Street | South Williamsburg | built 1889
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1879
James W. Naughton becomes Brooklyn's school architect in 1879 and goes on to design P.S. 71K
James W. Naughton, born in Ireland and raised in Brooklyn, takes over as Superintendent of Buildings for Brooklyn's Board of Education in 1879. He keeps the post for nearly twenty years, until his death in 1898, and every school Brooklyn built in the two decades before it joined New York City is his design, including P.S. 71K.
“He succeeded Samuel B. Leonard as Superintendent of Buildings for the Board of Education for the City of Brooklyn in 1879…”
- 1889
Brooklyn builds Public School 71K as a larger replacement for the small schoolhouses of its old villages
Brooklyn, still its own city with its own school system, puts up Public School 71K in the Williamsburgh section in 1888-89. The Landmarks Preservation Commission explains that the county grew densely populated after the Brooklyn Bridge was completed, and the schoolhouses that had served the earlier villages and small towns were no longer adequate, so larger buildings such as this one replaced them.
- 1889
The school rises as a symmetrical brick building in French Second Empire style, with a tall central tower
Wikipedia describes P.S. 71K as a three-story brick building with stone trim, built in 1888-89 to Naughton's plans. A tall central tower carries a high mansard roof that still has its original iron cresting. The article adds that the building has an exact twin at 225 Patchen Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
“It features a tall central tower with a high mansard roof and original iron cresting.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1981
The Landmarks Preservation Commission designates P.S. 71K, then Beth Jacob School, a city landmark
After a public hearing on October 9, 1979, where one witness spoke in favor and no one against, the Landmarks Preservation Commission issues its designation of Public School 71K on Designation List 139, dated February 3, 1981. The report names the building as then Beth Jacob School, part of the United Talmudical Academy Torah V'yirah, on Block 2225, Lot 42.
“One witness spoke in favor of designation. There were no speakers in opposition to designation.”
- 1982
The federal government lists the former P.S. 71K on the National Register of Historic Places
The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982, the year after the city designated it a landmark. Wikipedia notes that it now contains the Beis Rochel School, a private Satmar school for girls only.
“It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.”
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- Public School 71KWikipedia
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