Renaissance Charter School

81-05 37th Avenue | also 81-07 37th Avenue, 81-15 37th Avenue, 81-09 37th Avenue | Jackson Heights | built 1991

Open on the map4 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. 1918

    One-story shops rise at 82nd Street and 37th Avenue, the district's main commercial corner

    An earlier building stood here: in 1918 a group of one-story stores, by an unknown architect, went up at the 82nd Street end of this block, the major commercial crossroads of what is now the Jackson Heights Historic District. In 1949-50 they gave way to a larger building of stores and offices designed by L. Shulman. At the 81st Street end stood a second group of one-story shops, designed in 1937 by Horace Ginsbern.

    “One group of stores was built in 1918 (architect unknown) at the major commercial intersection in the district, 82nd Street and 37th Avenue…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1988

    The A & C Department Store remodeling grows to fill the whole 37th Avenue blockfront

    Remodeling of the Shulman building began in 1985 under architect Leo D. Fakler, and in 1988 a second phase by Paul Mok stretched it west to take in Horace Ginsbern's stores at the 81st Street corner. Finished by 1991, the three-story A & C Department Store covers the full blockfront between 81st and 82nd Streets on two tax lots, with a cast-concrete front banded in glazed brick.

    “That building was then remodeled to its current state beginning in 1985, and extended in 1988 to incorporate the other group of similar one-story stores…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  3. 1996

    The Renaissance School settles into permanent leased space on 37th Avenue

    The Renaissance School opened in September 1993 with 130 pupils in grades 4 through 7, housed in a wing of JHS 204 in Long Island City, and in 1995 moved to the closed St. Patrick's parish school. In 1996, now teaching kindergarten through tenth grade, it moved into a permanent leased home on 37th Avenue in Jackson Heights. Its founding proposal was one of 16 chosen from nearly 300.

    Source: Wikipedia

  4. 2003

    Mayor Michael Bloomberg announces a charter school expansion at Renaissance

    In 2000 the school had converted to charter status as Renaissance Charter School, among the first five in New York. In 2003 Mayor Michael Bloomberg chose it as the setting for a press conference announcing more charter schools, calling Renaissance a charter school that works. The school, led by founding principal Monte Joffee and later by Stacey Gauthier, teaches kindergarten through twelfth grade under one roof.

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

Nearby

All 509 buildings with stories in Jackson Heights