P.S. 157

327 St Nicholas Avenue | Manhattanville | built 1900

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.

1899
C. B. J. Snyder's P.S. 157 opens as a Renaissance Revival school
Architect C. B. J. Snyder designs P.S. 157 in the Renaissance Revival style, with a limestone, brick, and terra-cotta exterior. Work begins in 1896 and the school opens in 1899 with 45 classrooms for 1,974 students. Snyder draws on French and Flemish civic architecture rather than the plain "factory" look of earlier city schools, and the dormers and red tile roof make the building read almost like a group of row houses.
Source: Wikipedia
1975
P.S. 157 closes as a school and stands vacant
After about 76 years of use, P.S. 157 stops operating as a school in 1975 and becomes vacant. The empty building at 327 St. Nicholas Avenue is vandalized, and it sits unused until a rehabilitation project starts around 1989.
Source: Wikipedia
1982
December 10
P.S. 157 is added to the National Register of Historic Places
On December 10, 1982, P.S. 157 is added to the National Register of Historic Places. The school had been vacant since 1975, and the drive to convert it into housing had begun in the late 1970s.
Source: Wikipedia
1993
The former school reopens as 73 rental apartments
The state's Harlem Urban Development Corporation and the city housing agency lead the effort to turn the vacant school into homes. Work begins around 1989 and is finished in 1993. P.S. 157 now holds 73 rental apartments on five floors, some of them rent stabilized.
Source: Wikipedia

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