St. James' School (Transfiguration School Upper Campus)

37 St James Place | also 25 James Street | Two Bridges | built 1905

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. 1868

    The parish of St. James opens a four-story brick school at New Bowery and James Street

    Parish women raised most of the money for the school through fairs and entertainments, and it took fourteen years to complete. The red brick building, with a mansard roof and stone trim, mixed Gothic Revival and French Second Empire styles. By 1878 the Christian Brothers taught 640 boys, and the Sisters of Charity had more than 800 girls. New Bowery was renamed St. James Place in 1947.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1881

    February 6

    Irish residents meet in the school hall to back the Irish National Land League

    The basement hall of St. James' School often hosted neighborhood meetings. On February 6, 1881, Irish-born residents gathered there to support the Irish National Land League, which aimed to end landlordism in Ireland. On April 24 the hall filled with women who formed a Ladies' Branch League, addressed by former Assemblyman Thomas F. Grady.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1883

    June 26

    Pupil Alfred Smith recites at the boys' closing exercises; he later becomes governor

    The program for the boys' department closing exercises included a recitation by Master Alfred Smith. His family lived in a South Street tenement near the Brooklyn Bridge, and he received his formal schooling under the Christian Brothers here. Smith went on to serve as governor of New York, and in 1951 a plaque and bronze memorial doors were installed to mark his attendance.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1924

    March

    The school is rebuilt with fireproof stairs, a gymnasium and a restaurant after being ruled unsafe

    The Department of Buildings called the building unsafe in 1921, and the parish first tried to sell it. Instead the rector, Patrick Daly, raised $15,000, and Catholic Charities added $60,000. By March 1924 the wooden stairs and woodwork had been swapped for fireproof materials, the basement held a gymnasium, and poor children could eat at an on-site restaurant. Archbishop Patrick Hayes dedicated the renovated building.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 2010

    February

    The archdiocese closes St. James School, and Transfiguration School takes over the building

    In February 2010 the Archdiocese of New York announced that St. James School and St. Patrick's Old Cathedral School would close at the end of the school year, citing low enrollment. St. James students merged into St. Joseph School. Church of the Transfiguration School moved its upper grades into the old brick building on St. James Place.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Nearby

All 43 buildings with stories in Two Bridges