PS 222 Fire Fighter Christopher A. Santora School
86-15 37th Avenue | Jackson Heights | built 2001
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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.
- 1951
Polk Stores Corp. builds a store block later turned into the Young Israel synagogue
An earlier building stood on this site. Polk Stores Corp. completed a one-story brick and stucco commercial building here in 1951, designed by Jack Fein, with rows of jalousie windows. It was later converted into the synagogue and school of the Young Israel of Jackson Heights, which had its entrance on 37th Avenue when the historic district was designated in 1993.
“Completed in 1951 to designs by Jack Fein, this one-story brick and stucco building was constructed for commercial use and later converted into a synagogue and school.”
- 2002
School board votes to name the new PS 222 for firefighter Christopher Santora
At a January 2002 meeting, Community School Board 30 voted unanimously to name PS 222, then under construction on 37th Avenue, for Christopher Santora, a 23-year-old firefighter from Astoria killed in the World Trade Center attack. Santora had been a substitute teacher in District 30, where his mother and grandmother also taught. Board secretary Dorothy Wilner, who had known the family for decades, backed him as the choice.
Source: qchron.com
- 2002
Santora's family dedicates PS 222 as the Firefighter Christopher A. Santora School
The early childhood school at 37th Avenue and 87th Street opened in September 2002 and was formally renamed for Christopher Santora that December, with his parents, sisters and grandfather present. Borough President Helen Marshall spoke, children read poems about firefighters, and a children's choir sang. Santora had joined Engine Company 54 in Manhattan only months before he died on 9/11; his sister worked in the school.
Source: qchron.com
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