Public School 48

155-02 108th Avenue | South Jamaica | built 1931

Open on the map4 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. 1932

    P.S. 48 is chosen as the first school built on Walter C. Martin's new "P" plan

    Superintendent of School Buildings Walter C. Martin had worked out a "P" type plan in 1930, with an extended auditorium wing that would also hold more classrooms. In 1932 the Board of Education said the new P.S. 48 at 108th Avenue and 155th Street would be the first school built to it. The auditorium wing planned for this school was never built.

    “In 1932 it was reported that the new school would be the first to be built along the “P” type plan…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1935

    Martin dresses the South Jamaica school in Art Deco, with plaques of children around a book of knowledge

    The three-story tan-brick school rises between two corner towers, with granite door surrounds crowned with stylized eagles and big limestone cartouches showing the school's number in place of a carved name. Terra-cotta plaques over both doors show children on either side of an open book labeled "knowledge" with the sun rising behind it. A cornerstone beside the west entrance carries the year 1935.

    “…features children flanking an open book on a plinth emblazoned with the word “knowledge,” from behind which radiates the sun.”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  3. 1936

    May 4

    The new 800-seat P.S. 48 opens, replacing the frame schoolhouse built for Jamaica's Black children

    The school's roots lay in a wooden schoolhouse built for Jamaica's segregated "colored" school; by 1901 it carried the P.S. 48 name and admitted every child in the area. Replacing it took decades: a $345,000 Public Works Administration grant in late 1934 finally let construction start. The new elementary school, two months behind its March 1936 target, received its first pupils on May 4, 1936.

    “…it was another two months before the new 800-seat elementary school opened, welcoming its students on May 4, 1936.”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  4. 2020

    September 22

    Landmarks Preservation Commission designates P.S. 48 a New York City landmark

    At an August 4, 2020, hearing, Councilmember Adrienne E. Adams supported designation, as did the Art Deco Society of New York, the Historic Districts Council and the New York Landmarks Conservancy, and no one spoke against it. The commission designated the school on September 22, 2020. By then a newer P.S. 48 stood to the south, and this building was becoming P75Q, a special education center.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

Nearby

All 1 building with stories in South Jamaica