Public School 15
4010 Dyre Avenue | Eastchester | built 1900
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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.
- 1875
A debate over a new Eastchester school ends with Andrew George's gift of an acre
By 1875 Eastchester residents agreed that their schoolhouse of 1790 was inadequate and argued over where to put a new one. A road now linked Fifth Avenue in Mount Vernon to the Boston Post Road, with a horsecar line to the Mount Vernon railroad station, and some expected the town center to follow. The debate ended when Andrew George donated the southernmost acre of his property, at Fifth Avenue and Kingsbridge Road, as the school site.
“AndrPw Georp.e donated the- southernmost acre of loti s property at the inte-rsection of Fifth Avenu· and Kinpshridfe Road as the site for the new school…”
- 1877
Head teacher Simon Williams designs the schoolhouse he will run
Simon Williams, head teacher at the old Eastchester school, drew the designs for the new building, which local builder Edward Cordial put up in 1877. Williams then served as its principal for its first two years. The school served the southern part of the town of Eastchester, which joined New York City in 1898.
- 1877
An H-plan Victorian Gothic schoolhouse rises above Dyre Avenue
Built on a grassy lot that slopes down to Rombouts Avenue, the red brick school follows an H plan common for 19th-century schoolhouses around New York. Two steep-roofed gabled pavilions on rough stone bases flank a lower central section, with brick quoins, bull's-eye windows in the side gables and a bell tower with a pyramidal roof and weather vane over the entrance.
“…hell tower with a steep pyramidal roof topped hv a weather vane.”
- 1978
The old Eastchester schoolhouse becomes a city landmark
The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated Public School 15 on January 10, 1978, calling it a rare example in the city of the rural red brick schoolhouse, designed by its own head teacher and built by a local builder. Fourteen witnesses spoke for the designation at the November 1977 hearing, and nobody spoke against it.
“Fourteen witnesses spoke in favor of designation. There were no sneakers in opposition to designation.”
- 1981
Public School 15 joins the National Register as a child care center
The school stopped holding classes in the late 1970s and became a child care center. In 1981 the 1877 building was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
“It ceased to be used as a school in the late 1970s and serves as a child care center. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981.”
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- Public School 15Wikipedia
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