Public School 15 (Daniel D. Tompkins School)
98 Grant Street | also 155 St Pauls Avenue | Tompkinsville | built 1898
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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.
- 1855
Tompkinsville builds a small Italianate schoolhouse on the corner
From 1854, Staten Island school districts could choose sites and raise money to build and run their own schoolhouses, funded by state aid and district taxes. In 1855 Tompkinsville built a small Italianate schoolhouse topped by a belfry at the corner of St. Paul's Avenue and Grant Street. A public school has stood on this lot ever since, and the present building replaced a later schoolhouse here.
“In Tompkinsville , a small Italianate style schoolhouse with a belfry was built in 1855 at St. Paul's A venue and Grant Street.”
- 1897
Architect Edward A. Sargent wins the design contest and turns the school toward St. Paul's Avenue
Seven architects were invited in May 1897 to compete for the new district school, budgeted at $37,000. In June the trustees chose Edward A. Sargent, an English-born Tompkinsville resident who had married Mary Augusta Doubleday, niece of the reputed inventor of baseball. A week later Sargent persuaded the board to face the building on St. Paul's Avenue rather than Grant Street, and in August Stapleton builder Henry Spruck got the contract.
“Sargent appeared before the board to recommend the "changing of the Building so as to front on St. Paul's Avenue instead of Grant Street…”
- 1898
Students move into the new school as Staten Island joins New York City
Work ran past the planned January 10 opening, and pupils moved in on January 24, 1898, at a total cost of more than $51,000 with furniture. The three-story building with its clock tower held twelve classrooms, a library, playrooms and an assembly room seating 600. Opened as Middletown Township District School No. 1, it was renumbered Public School 15 when Staten Island's schools were renumbered after consolidation that January.
- 1916
P.S. 15 takes the name of Tompkinsville's founder, Daniel D. Tompkins
On March 22, 1916, as part of a school naming program, P.S. 15 took the name of Daniel D. Tompkins, the founder of Tompkinsville and its best-known resident. It stayed an elementary school through 1965. From 1967 the Board of Education used it as a maintenance office for Staten Island schools, and in October 1996 the School Construction Authority took down the upper clock tower for reconstruction.
“Public School 15 officially received the name "Daniel D. Tompkins School" on March 22, 1916…”
Nearby
- Audre Lorde Residence207 St Pauls Avenue | 4 entries
- St. Paul's Memorial Church219 St Pauls Avenue | 3 entries
- Mary and David Burgher House63 William Street | 4 entries
- Caleb T. Ward Mansion141 Nixon Avenue | 6 entries
- 364 Van Duzer Street House364 Van Duzer Street | 3 entries
- 417 Westervelt Avenue House, Horton's Row417 Westervelt Avenue | 4 entries