70 Mulberry Street

also 74 Mulberry Street, 86 Bayard Street | Chinatown | built 1900

Open on the map5 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. 1891

    The city files plans for Public School 23 on Mulberry Street

    In 1891 the city filed plans for this school, designed by Charles B. J. Snyder with 31 classrooms for up to 1,694 pupils at a cost of $130,000. As P.S. 23 it was renamed the Columbus School in 1915, reflecting the then mostly Italian American neighborhood, and by the 1930s more of its pupils were Chinese. It closed as a school in June 1976 and became home to community groups.

    Source: archives.nyc

  2. 1892

    PS 23 opens as a showcase of fireproof school design

    Architect C. B. J. Snyder completed PS 23 in 1892, his first New York City school commission, combining Romanesque and Renaissance Revival styles with an orange brick facade and a tower of stair-stepped windows. The Evening World called its fireproof ground floor, built with no combustible materials, one of the greatest advances yet made in school design, and Snyder gave the school a basement auditorium meant to double as a neighborhood gathering hall.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1905

    The New-York Tribune calls PS 23 the "school of twenty-nine nationalities"

    By 1905 PS 23 was educating children of 29 nationalities, according to the New-York Tribune, drawn from the crowded Five Points tenements and including Italian, Irish, Polish, Russian, Greek, and Syrian families. The school also stayed open into the evening so pupils who worked during the day could still attend classes.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1980

    The former school becomes the Chinatown History Project

    After the school closed, the building was converted in 1980 into the Chinatown History Project, renamed the Chinatown History Museum in 1991. The Chinatown Senior Center later moved in as well, and the school's upper tower was removed and replaced with a full story finished in sympathetic crenellated detail.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 2020

    January 23

    A five-alarm fire guts the Chinatown community hub at 70 Mulberry

    A five-alarm fire on January 23, 2020, gutted the building, then home to groups including the Chinatown Manpower Project, the Chinese-American Planning Council, the Chen Dance Center and the collections of the Museum of Chinese in America. The third through fifth floors were demolished, leaving the brownstone base, brick second story and stair tower. In 2021 the city committed $170 million to rebuild behind the historic facade.

    Source: 6sqft

Further reading

Nearby

All 93 buildings with stories in Chinatown