Public School 65K

158 Richmond Street | Cypress Hills | built 1870

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. 1870

    Cypress Hills builds a two-story brick schoolhouse after years of classes in a church basement

    Cypress Hills had its own school district from 1856, but pupils kept using the basement of a nearby Methodist church until 1870. That year a two-story brick school went up on the Richmond Street lot. Its walls still form the central section of the building standing there today.

    “…it was not until 1870 that a two-story high brick building was erected for the school…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1889

    James W. Naughton adds front and rear extensions and gives the school its Romanesque Revival face

    Brooklyn's school architect James W. Naughton enlarged the 1870 school in 1889, adding extensions at the front and back. The new street facade is brick with a slightly projecting central tower. The landmarks commission later noted terra-cotta plaques borrowed from the Queen Anne style and Gothic-derived trefoils over the windows.

    “…the facade is an 1889 addition and extension to an 1870 building; that the design incorporates elements of the Gothic and Queen Anne styles…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  3. 1981

    February 3

    The Landmarks Preservation Commission designates Public School 65K an individual landmark

    After a public hearing on October 9, 1979, where six witnesses spoke for designation and none against, the commission designated the school a landmark on February 3, 1981. Its report called the building one of the few 19th-century school buildings left in the city and noted that it still served as a school.

    “Six witnesses spoke in favor of designation. There were no speakers in opposition to designation.”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

Further reading

Nearby

All 4 buildings with stories in Cypress Hills