Murry Bergtraum High School

411 Pearl Street | also 2 Madison Street | Civic Center | built 1975

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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. 1974

    October

    A trade journal previews the triangular Bergtraum school, planned to share space with the telephone company

    In its October 1974 issue, the magazine American School and University described the Murry Bergtraum High School for Business Careers, a triangular building then expected to open the following September. It reported that the school would share space with the telephone company, and it credited the architect's decision to follow the natural shape of the corner site with providing adequate room for the school.

    Source: eric.ed.gov

  2. 1975

    Murry Bergtraum High School for Business Careers is founded, named for a late Board of Education president

    Murry Bergtraum High School was founded in 1975 as a memorial to Murry Bergtraum, who served as president of the New York City Board of Education from 1970 to 1971 and died in 1973. Supported by the Downtown Lower Manhattan Association, it was among the first high schools in the country to build its program around business majors. With the building still under construction, the first freshman class began at Pace University.

    “The school was established in 1975, in memory of Murry Bergtraum, a former President of the New York City Board of Education…”

    Source: Wikipedia

  3. 1975

    A student wins the contest to design the school emblem

    While the first freshmen attended classes at Pace University waiting for the new building to finish, an art teacher ran a logo contest. Staff picked the design of a student, Norberto Feliciano: a circle with a triangle at its center for the school's aerial shape, olive branches echoing the United Nations flag, and the school's initials inside.

    “Ultimately the winner chosen by the staff was a student named Norberto Feliciano.”

    Source: Wikipedia

  4. 1985

    Q-Tip and classmate Ali Shaheed Muhammad start recording demos that grow into A Tribe Called Quest

    Q-Tip, then a battle rapper who went by MC Love Child, sometimes teamed up with fellow Bergtraum student Ali Shaheed Muhammad, who handled the DJ side. In 1985 the pair started recording demos using beats Q-Tip built on pause tapes, and Phife Dawg and Jarobi White later joined them. The Jungle Brothers, who attended the same high school, came up with the name A Tribe Called Quest in 1988.

    Source: Wikipedia

  5. 2001

    September 11

    Bergtraum's building is evacuated in three minutes on September 11, and its students are sent uptown

    After the World Trade Center was attacked on September 11, 2001, the school's administration ordered an immediate evacuation, and the building emptied in three minutes. The school was labeled a "Ground Zero" school, and its students were relocated uptown, to the High School of Art and Design. Bergtraum's administrators objected and appealed, and the building reopened with classes resuming within a few days.

    Source: Wikipedia

  6. 2006

    February 1

    Senior Epiphanny Prince scores 113 points for Bergtraum, breaking the girls' national high school record

    On February 1, 2006, Epiphanny Prince, a 5-foot-9 senior guard, scored 113 points in Murry Bergtraum's 137-32 win over Brandeis High School. She passed the girls' national high school record of 105, set by Cheryl Miller in 1982, after scoring 29 in the first quarter and 58 by halftime. Her previous high that season was 51, and coach Ed Grezinsky said the staff saw her chance at the record at the break and let her keep shooting. Prince was headed to Rutgers.

    Source: espn.com

  7. 2011

    Bergtraum's girls' basketball team stands at thirteen consecutive PSAL championships

    By 2011 the school's girls' basketball team had won thirteen consecutive PSAL championships, the titles of the city's public-school athletic league, a streak that made the team one of Bergtraum's best-known features. Among the school's graduates are WNBA players Shannon Bobbitt, who played for the Los Angeles Sparks, and Epiphanny Prince, who played for the Chicago Sky.

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

Nearby

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