St. Walburga's Academy

630 Riverside Drive | also 629 West 140th Street | Hamilton Heights | built 1910

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.

1913
Architect John W. Kearney's Gothic Revival academy opens as a girls' school
Construction of the Gothic Revival building, designed by architect John W. Kearney for the Society of the Holy Child Jesus, began in 1911. The academy opened in 1913 as both a boarding and a day school for girls.
Source: Wikipedia
1957
The academy moves to Rye and becomes the School of the Holy Child
The school relocated to Rye, New York, in 1957 and took the name School of the Holy Child. It had operated at 630 Riverside Drive since opening in 1913.
Source: Wikipedia
1980
The former school building serves as a filming location for the film Inferno
In 1980 the former academy building was used as a filming location for the film Inferno. The school had left for Rye in 1957, and the Fortune Society would buy the property in 1998.
Source: Wikipedia
2002
April
The Fortune Society reopens the building as the Fortune Academy
The Fortune Society, a nonprofit that helps people released from prison reintegrate into society, purchased the property in 1998 and then refurbished it. In April 2002 the newly named Fortune Academy opened, with room for up to 90 homeless people who were previously incarcerated. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on July 28, 2004.
Source: Wikipedia

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