Sullivan Street Industrial School (Philip Coltoff Center)

209 Sullivan Street | also 215 Sullivan Street | Greenwich Village | built 1910

Open on the map3 entries

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1887

    A stable and loft building goes up here and is later taken over by the Children's Aid Society

    An earlier building on this site, a stable and loft at 209-211 Sullivan Street, was constructed in 1887 to a design by J. Kastner for Samuel McCreery. The Children's Aid Society acquired it in the 1930s, and it appears to have served as the organization's visual arts center. The building has since been demolished.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1891

    The Children's Aid Society opens the Sullivan Street Industrial School for the neighborhood's Italian children

    In 1891-92 the Children's Aid Society, founded by the minister and reformer Charles Loring Brace, built an industrial school here to serve the heavily Italian neighborhood. Children learned woodworking, metalworking, sewing and cooking along with regular academic subjects. Calvert Vaux and George Kent Radford were chosen to design it, though Nicholas Gillesheimer reworked the plan before construction. By the 1930s the society's schools were turning toward recreation and health.

    “This site was intended to serve the children of the heavily Italian neighborhood. By the 1930s, the schools began to focus instead on recreation and health…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  3. 2011

    The Children's Aid Society closes its Sullivan Street center, and the old school becomes part of apartments

    The Children's Aid Society officially closed its Sullivan Street operations in 2011. The complex, known as the Philip Coltoff Center, had included the 1891-92 school, a stable-and-loft building and a playground. The altered school building was being folded into a new residential structure on the site when the landmarks commission designated the district.

    “The C.A.S. officially closed its Sullivan Street operations in 2011.”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

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