Professional Children's School

132 West 60th Street | Lincoln Square | built 1917

Open on the map3 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

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.

  1. 1956

    After 40 years of renting, the school buys its own seven-story building on West 60th Street

    In 1956 Professional Children's School bought its own seven-story building at 132 West 60th Street, after four decades of renting, before Lincoln Center had been built. Board president Mrs. Norman Smith told the New York Times that the school and the planners of the Lincoln Square cultural center shared the same goals. By the late 1960s Juilliard and the School of American Ballet were a few blocks away, and ballet and classical music students outnumbered actors at the school.

    Source: pcs-nyc.org

  2. 2000

    May

    Ten seniors win Ivy League places as the school sheds its reputation as a refuge for child stars

    In spring 2000 the New York Times reported that, of 22 seniors applying to academic colleges, 10 got into the Ivy League, and about 80 percent of the 46-member senior class was headed to college, up from 30 or 40 percent two decades earlier. Fourteen others applied only to Juilliard. Headmaster James Dawson said people used to think of the school's students as the wild kids. One pianist, Berenika Zakrzewski, was accepted by both Harvard and Juilliard.

    Source: The New York Times

  3. 2004

    A $9 million renovation adds classrooms, a two-story auditorium and a gym

    In 2004 the school finished a $9 million renovation and expansion of its building at 132 West 60th Street, designed by Steven Harris Architects. The project brought more classrooms and offices, a new cafeteria, an auditorium two stories high, and a gymnasium on a new eighth floor. Head of school James Dawson, in place since 1995, said the aim was a better school, not a bigger one.

    Source: pcs-nyc.org

Further reading

Nearby

All 48 buildings with stories in Lincoln Square