P.S. 1 Alfred E. Smith School
8 Henry Street | also 2 Henry Street | Two Bridges | built 1900
Open on the map3 entries
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.
- 1899
P.S. 1 opens in a chateau-style school by C. B. J. Snyder
P.S. 1 opened in 1899 on the corner of Oliver and Henry Streets, a design by C. B. J. Snyder. As the city's superintendent of school buildings from 1891 to 1922, Snyder planned more than 400 schools and additions while immigrant children poured into the city. The chateau-like building has small Dutch-inspired gables along the roofline and large windows that admit light and air. Some accounts trace the school's roots to the New York Free School Society of 1805, in which Henry Rutgers took part.
Source: lespi-nyc.org
- 1918
Al Smith and his wife Catherine vote here in his first race for governor
P.S. 1 was Alfred E. Smith's polling place. In November 1918, during his first run for governor, he voted here with his wife Catherine, who was voting for the first time because New York had only just given women the vote. Smith did not attend the school, having finished his formal education before it opened, and his parents preferred Catholic schooling anyway. The school was later named for him.
Source: lespi-nyc.org
- 1950
Row houses beside the school, including Al Smith's former home at 28 Oliver Street, are torn down for a playground
In 1950 the row houses between P.S. 1 and Madison Street, and those along Madison Street toward Catherine Street, were demolished to make the present playground. One was 28 Oliver Street, the second building from the school, where Al Smith lived in the third-floor apartment and where his fourth child was born. In 1909 the family had moved across the street to 25 Oliver Street when the apartment grew too crowded.
Source: lespi-nyc.org
Nearby
- Alfred E. Smith House25 Oliver Street | 4 entries
- Woolsey G. Sterling House27 Oliver Street | 8 entries
- Mariners' Temple12 Oliver Street | 4 entries
- Daniel Riordan House15 Oliver Street | 5 entries
- Alfred E. Smith House25REAR Oliver Street | 5 entries
- Mariners' Temple Baptist Church6 Oliver Street | 5 entries