Brooklyn Technical High School

29 Fort Greene Place | also 29 Ft Greene Place | Fort Greene | built 1932

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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. 1932

    Walter C. Martin builds Brooklyn Tech like a skyscraper, with steel girders, as the school's cornerstone is laid

    The Board of Education's Superintendent of Buildings, Walter C. Martin, designed the school in the massing of a 1920s skyscraper. It rises twelve stories, not counting the radio tower, and was built with steel girders and reinforced concrete. Construction took almost three years during the Depression. Principal Albert Colston is pictured laying the cornerstone in 1932.

    Source: brownstoner.com

  2. 1934

    A federal art program commissions a foyer mural from Maxwell B. Starr

    The Public Works of Art Project, a forerunner of the WPA, engaged the artist Maxwell B. Starr in 1934 for a mural in the school's foyer. Its subject is the evolution of man and science through history. That federal project later became the Works Projects Administration.

    “In 1934, the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP)... commissioned artist Maxwell B. Starr to paint a mural in the foyer depicting the evolution of man and science…”

    Source: Wikipedia

  3. 1967

    The WNYE tower on the roof lets New York's schools watch classroom television

    In 1967 the city's schools first got to watch television in their classrooms, using the WNYE-TV tower on top of Brooklyn Tech. The tower stands 420 feet, three times the height of the school itself, and together the structure reaches 597 feet. It was the tallest structure in Brooklyn until 2017, when The Hub topped it.

    “In 1967, the schools of New York City got to view television in the classrooms for the first time, thanks to the 420-foot WNYE-TV tower…”

    Source: Wikipedia

  4. 1970

    Young women begin attending the formerly all-boys school

    For the school year beginning in the second half of 1970, young women started attending Brooklyn Tech. Until then the school had been all boys, with Bay Ridge High School as a girls' sister school. In 1972 the state legislature made Brooklyn Tech, Bronx Science, Stuyvesant and the High School for Performing Arts specialized high schools, with a uniform admissions exam.

    Source: Wikipedia

  5. 1973

    A time capsule is buried under a monument to the school's eight majors in the north courtyard

    Brooklyn Tech marked its 50th anniversary in 1973 with a dinner-dance at the Waldorf Astoria. To commemorate the anniversary, the school also put up a monument in its north courtyard, with a time capsule beneath it. The monument has eight panels, each with its own design for one of the eight majors Tech offered at the time.

    “…a monument was erected, with a time capsule beneath it, in the north courtyard. The monument has eight panels…”

    Source: Wikipedia

  6. 1987

    The seventh-floor foundry, where students cast metal, closes

    The seventh-floor foundry had a floor of molding sand for making sand casting molds, plus furnaces, kilns, ovens and other metal-smelting equipment. Students built wooden patterns to shape the sand molds, cast metal in them, and machined the castings to specification in the shops. John Tobin, who became principal in 1987, closed the foundry and abolished the Materials Science department.

    Source: Wikipedia

  7. 1988

    Spike Lee shoots the "Da Butt" video for School Daze at Brooklyn Tech

    Brooklyn Tech's cheerleading squad appeared in Spike Lee's 1988 film School Daze. A music video made for the movie, titled "Da Butt," was shot in the school. Lee also used the first-floor gymnasium as a location in He Got Game.

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

Nearby

All 18 buildings with stories in Fort Greene