Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School

5 West 93rd Street | Upper West Side | built 1900

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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. 1907

    October 8

    Columbia Grammar School opens a new four-story building erected in about four months

    Cramped by commercial buildings on East 51st Street, the school bought a 75-foot plot on West 93rd Street in March 1907. Plans for a four-story school with a two-story gymnasium were filed on June 15 at a cost of $45,000, and construction started two days later. The building opened on October 8, 1907, which the New-York Tribune said took 110 days.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1917

    Students pledge their loyalty to the country and send resolutions to President Wilson

    The United States joined World War I on April 4, 1917, and the Columbia Grammar boys, too young to enlist, held an assembly of the whole school. Their resolutions, adopted unanimously, promised undying loyalty to the country, endorsed every act of the President and Congress, and offered whatever help the students could give. A copy went to President Woodrow Wilson, according to The Sun on April 22.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1920

    July

    A new owners' corporation takes the school building, and Fiorello LaGuardia teaches civics

    In July 1920, a year after Benjamin Campbell retired as headmaster, a newly formed company, the 7 West Ninety-third Street Corporation, bought the school building. The New-York Tribune noted that the new owners would run the school themselves. Among the instructors who joined was Fiorello LaGuardia, who taught civics.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1925

    Longtime headmaster Benjamin Campbell, a famously tight-fisted eccentric, leaves his only son $1

    Benjamin Howell Campbell led the school for 51 years and, though wealthy, wore the same long coat and battered hat to class while dressing for dinner by candlelight at home in New Jersey. His successor Frederic Alden recalled that even short pieces of string were saved and that no money was spent on improvements. When Campbell's will was read in 1925, it left his son Shiras just $1, because the son had married without his approval.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 1925

    March 5

    A chemistry experiment explodes in the school laboratory and burns a 16-year-old student

    On March 5, 1925, science teacher William C. Carl was running experiments in the laboratory when an explosion seriously burned the face and hands of a 16-year-old student. Six months later the boy's father sued Carl for $20,000 on his son's behalf and $1,000 for himself, claiming the boy was never warned that badly mixed chemicals could explode.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  6. 1945

    Columbia Grammar boys set a New York record selling Victory Bonds

    In the Sixth War Loan drive of late 1944, students at 5 West 93rd Street sold $567,000 in bonds, among the largest school totals in the country. The next year they did better: on December 31, 1945, The New York Sun reported that the combined primary and high schools had sold $1,447,240 in Victory Bonds, a record for New York City secondary schools.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  7. 1962

    A renovation removes the building's split staircase and original entrance

    The 1907 school had a dramatic split exterior staircase leading to the main entrance, a feature that echoed the Berkeley School of 1891. Renovations in 1962 removed the stairs and the original entrance. When the Landmarks Preservation Commission drew the Central Park West Historic District in 1990, it included a school building of 1984 across the street but left out 5-7 West 93rd Street.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

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