St. Bernard's School

4 East 98th Street | East Harlem | built 1915

Open on the map6 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. 1904

    John Jenkins founds St. Bernard's School with fellow Cambridge graduate Francis Tabor

    John C. Jenkins, a young Englishman who had studied at Cambridge, founded the school in 1904. In its first school year he brought in Francis Tabor, a friend from Cambridge, and the two men ran it together. Jenkins chose the name for sentimental reasons, after a school in Brussels that belonged to his family. The school began at 570 Fifth Avenue, and eleven years passed before it reached its East 98th Street building.

    Source: stbernards.org

  2. 1915

    St. Bernard's moves into its own Delano & Aldrich building at 4 East 98th Street

    After its first years on Fifth Avenue and a stop at 111 East 60th Street in 1910, St. Bernard's moved in 1915 into a building made for it at 4 East 98th Street. The architects were Delano and Aldrich. The school has stayed at the address ever since, adding to the building over the decades.

    Source: stbernards.org

  3. 1936

    The future poet James Merrill plays the First Herald in the school's Richard II

    In 1936 the future poet James Merrill played the First Herald in St. Bernard's production of Shakespeare's Richard II, a part the source describes as small but important. The school had been at 4 East 98th Street since 1915. Merrill looked back on the experience in a 1985 poem, "The School Play."

    “In 1936, James Merrill played the First Herald in St. Bernard's production of Richard II ... recalled the experience in his 1985 poem…”

    Source: Wikipedia

  4. 1949

    Founder John Jenkins hands the headmaster's post to R.I.W. Westgate after 45 years

    John C. Jenkins led St. Bernard's as headmaster from its founding in 1904 until 1949, and he picked his own successor. The new head, R.I.W. Westgate, held a master's degree from Oxford and a doctorate from Harvard. Westgate ran the school until 1971.

    Source: stbernards.org

  5. 1971

    Two gyms and a rooftop play deck are added to the school building

    The 1997 renovation enlarged the school building by two and a half floors, with the new seventh floor holding a gym. It was the most recent major expansion of the 1915 Delano & Aldrich building, which still forms the core of the school at 4 East 98th Street.

    Source: stbernards.org

  6. 1997

    A two-and-a-half-floor addition gives the school a seventh-floor gym

    The 1997 renovation added two and a half floors to the school building, with a gym on the new seventh floor. It was the most recent major expansion of the 1915 Delano & Aldrich building, which still forms the core of the school at 4 East 98th Street.

    Source: stbernards.org

Further reading

Nearby

All 38 buildings with stories in East Harlem