Trinity School

139 West 91st Street | also 147 West 91st Street | Upper West Side | built 1894

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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. 1893

    October 18

    Trinity Church lays the cornerstone for Charles Haight's new school beside St. Agnes Parish House

    After finishing St. Agnes Parish House in 1892, Trinity Church bought five adjoining lots on West 91st Street and hired Charles Coolidge Haight to design a school building. Dean Hoffman of the General Theological Seminary laid the cornerstone on October 18, 1893. The New York Times predicted that the new school would rank among the finest buildings of its kind in the city.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1895

    February 3

    Trinity School dedicates its brownstone building, $30,000 under budget

    The completed school, stretching from 139 to 147 West 91st Street, was dedicated on February 3, 1895. It cost an estimated $200,000, about $30,000 less than planned. The four-story brownstone held an assembly room, library and primary classrooms on the ground floor, classrooms above, and an elaborately equipped gymnasium on the top floor. Haight pushed the end bays forward to form a grassy courtyard and billed the building as completely fireproof.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1898

    Trinity suspends a student who gave a false birth date to enter junior track events

    In 1898 a Trinity student named Mohr lied about his age to enter the junior events at the yearly track team championships. The Interscholastic Athletic Association discovered the fraud and brought charges against the school. Rector Dr. A. Ulmann announced that the boy was suspended the moment he admitted the lie and would probably not return.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1915

    A private-school handbook counts 300 boys at Trinity, four in five headed to top colleges

    By 1915 Trinity had changed from the charity school of colonial days into an exclusive institution. The Handbook of Private Schools reported that year that its total enrollment, from the primary grades through college preparation, was 300 boys. Eighty percent of the graduates went on to leading colleges each year.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 1932

    Truman Capote attends Trinity School in 1932

    In 1932 the future novelist Truman Capote was a pupil at Trinity School in New York, before moving on to St. Joseph Military Academy. His family moved to Greenwich, Connecticut, in 1939, and he went to Greenwich High School, where he wrote for the literary journal and the school newspaper.

    “In 1932, he attended the Trinity School in New York City. He then attended St. Joseph Military Academy.”

    Source: Wikipedia

  6. 1964

    Jim Carroll wins a scholarship to Trinity and attends from 1964 to 1968

    Jim Carroll entered Rice High School in Harlem in fall 1963 and was soon awarded a scholarship to Trinity School. He attended Trinity from 1964 to 1968. In high school he was a basketball star and also developed a heroin addiction, and he later became a poet, memoirist and punk musician.

    “…was soon awarded a scholarship to the elite Trinity School. He attended Trinity from 1964 to 1968. Carroll was a basketball star in high school…”

    Source: Wikipedia

  7. 1968

    Trinity School separates from Trinity Church and becomes non-sectarian

    In 1968 the school ended its formal ties to Trinity Church, the parish that had founded it in 1709, and became non-sectarian. It kept some traditions: students still take at least one semester of religious studies, and an Episcopal priest paid by Trinity Church remains on staff.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  8. 1971

    Trinity admits girls for the first time in 133 years

    Trinity had stopped admitting girls in 1838 and had been a boys' school ever since. In 1971, 133 years later, female students were admitted for the first time, at the school's West 91st Street home.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  9. 1989

    August

    The Landmarks Preservation Commission designates Trinity School and St. Agnes Parish House

    In August 1989 the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Trinity School building and the neighboring St. Agnes Parish House as a joint New York City landmark. The parish house, completed in 1892, had become part of the school in the 1940s.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

Nearby

All 64 buildings with stories in Upper West Side