Julia Richman Education Complex
300 East 68th Street | also 1278 2nd Avenue, 301 East 67th Street | Lenox Hill | built 1924
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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.
- 1922
Construction starts on the Julia Richman High School building on Second Avenue
Work on the present Julia Richman High School building began in 1922. A New York Times headline of August 24, 1922 reported a contract for the building at a cost of $1,864,000. The school, an all-girls commercial high school since its 1913 opening in Greenwich Village, dedicated the new building two years later, in 1924.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1967
Julia Richman High School, all-girl since 1913, becomes co-educational
A June 30, 1966 New York Times headline announced that Julia Richman High, an all-girls school since 1913, would admit boys in 1967. The school changed to co-educational that year, ending more than five decades as a girls' school.
“JRHS changed to co-educational in 1967. Julia Richman High, All-Girl Since '13, To Be Coed in '67…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1990
The local police precinct nicknames Julia Richman High School 'Julia Rikers'
Wikipedia says that by 1990 the Board of Education had identified Julia Richman High School as having the worst student achievement statistics in Manhattan. Police in the local precinct called it 'Julia Rikers,' citing its violence and vandalism. Metal detectors were installed, metal cages isolated students with disciplinary problems, and only 37 percent of enrollees graduated.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1993
The school board votes to close Julia Richman High School and reconfigure it
With a graduation rate around 35 percent, the school board voted in 1993 to close Julia Richman High School. Rather than give up on it, the board chose to reconfigure the school. Edutopia later called the decision a radical move, made well before high school reform spread nationally, and the building became a complex of small schools.
Source: edutopia.org
- 2005
Hunter College announces a plan that would demolish the Julia Richman building
In spring 2005 Hunter College announced a plan to demolish the Julia Richman building at East 67th Street and sell the rest of its Brookdale campus to fund a new science center. The schools' students, about 1,850 of them in 2008, would move to a new complex on 25th Street. Parents, teachers and students fought back with two demonstrations, a 40-foot banner hung from the building, a website and a media campaign.
Source: indypendent.org
- 2007
The American Architectural Foundation gives the complex its Richard Riley Award
In 2007 the American Architectural Foundation gave the Julia Richman Education Complex the Richard Riley Award, given to schools that function as community centers. A 2008 article described the 84-year-old building as home to a 1,400-seat auditorium, two gyms and a skylit swimming pool, shared by six schools, four of them small high schools.
Source: indypendent.org
- 2008
Community Board 8 votes to oppose moving the Julia Richman schools
On May 21, 2008, Manhattan's Community Board 8 voted for a resolution against Hunter College's plan. Supporters in the room jumped up and chanted 'thank you' for almost a minute. Hunter said it would keep moving forward, while a Department of Education official said no decision had been made and the matter was still up in the air.
Source: indypendent.org
Further reading
- Talent Unlimited High SchoolWikipedia
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