Public School 20 Annex

160 Heberton Avenue | also 30 Vreeland Street | Port Richmond | built 1920

Open on the map5 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. 1842

    School District 6 trustees buy land for a Port Richmond schoolhouse

    School District 6 trustees bought part of this site in 1842 and probably soon built the first school here, one of the first on Staten Island with more than one room; a member of the class of 1860 recalled a small two-story brick building with an outside staircase. It became a union free school in 1875, a wooden stable next door was converted for lower grades in 1876, and both were condemned as unsanitary in 1883.

    “A portion of the site of the P.S. 20 Annex was acquired by the trustees of School District 6 in 1842…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1891

    May 19

    After a bitter bond fight, Port Richmond lays the cornerstone of its towered school

    Rebuilding stalled for years amid local opposition, until heated public meetings in 1890 led the town to approve $30,000 in school bonds. The old brick school was torn down, the cornerstone of the new building was laid on May 19, 1891, and classes moved in by mid-December. Its four-story bell tower with a tall pyramidal roof was the first such tower on any Staten Island school.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  3. 1897

    James Warriner Moulton designs an addition meant to look more manly

    With $43,000 in bonds approved by late June 1897, architect James Warriner Moulton's plans were accepted and work began that September. Moulton, a founder of the Staten Island Chamber of Commerce, said he wanted to fix the weak, veneered look of the 1891 walls and give the whole building a manly character. His symmetrical addition facing Vreeland Street has a five-story tower and abundant classical terra-cotta ornament.

    “He wished to give " the appearance of strength and massiveness to the new ... a manly character to the whole building.”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  4. 1898

    September

    The enlarged school reopens after consolidation as Public School 20

    Finished after the 1898 consolidation of Greater New York, the addition was first used in September 1898. Renamed Public School 20, the school was then the third largest on Staten Island, with close to 800 pupils. Port Richmond's continued growth led to a third, neo-Gothic building in the P.S. 20 complex, designed by C.B.J. Snyder and built in 1915.

    “Renamed Public School 20 , it was the third largest of the island's public schools, with an enrollment approaching eight hundred.”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  5. 1988

    March 22

    P.S. 20 Annex becomes a landmark despite opposition at its hearing

    The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Public School 20 Annex at 160 Heberton Avenue on March 22, 1988. At the September 1987 hearing three witnesses spoke for designation and four against. The Commission called it among the few public school buildings from the 1800s still standing on Staten Island, built before the district school system ended with consolidation.

    “Three witnesses spoke in favor of designation. Four witnesses spoke in opposition to designation.”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

Nearby

All 11 buildings with stories in Port Richmond