DESIGNATION REPORT Public School 109 (now El Barrio’s Artspace PS109) Landmarks Preservation Designation Report Designation List 505 Commission Public School 109 LP-2597 March 27, 2018

DESIGNATION REPORT Public School 109 (now El Barrio’s Artspace PS109) LOCATION Borough of Manhattan 215 East 99th Street LANDMARK TYPE Individual SIGNIFICANCE Combining the Collegiate Gothic Style with an H-Plan building footprint, Public School 109 is architecturally and culturally significant as a Progressive-era elementary school designed by the Superintendent of School Buildings Charles B. J. Snyder and constructed in 1899. Landmarks Preservation Designation Report Designation List 505 Commission Public School 109 LP-2597 March 27, 2018

Public School 109 New York Public Library, 1920 (above) Public School 109 LPC, 2018 (left) Landmarks Preservation Designation Report Designation List 505 Commission Public School 109 LP-2597 March 27, 2018 3 of 28

Public School 109 (now El Barrio’s Artspace PS109) 215 East 99th Street, Manhattan Designation List 505 LP-2579 Built: 1899-1901 Architect: Charles B. J. Snyder Landmark Site: Borough of Manhattan, Tax Map Block 1649, Lot 9 On February 13, 2018, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held a public hearing on the proposed designation of Public School 109 (now El Barrio’s Artspace PS109) as a New York City Landmark and the proposed designation of the related Landmark Site (Item No. 2). The hearing had been duly advertised in accordance with the provisions of the law. Six people testified in favor of the proposed designation, including representatives of Civitas, Friends of the Upper East Side Historic District, the Historic Districts Council, Landmark East Harlem, and the New York Landmarks Conservancy. No one spoke in opposition to the proposed designation. The Commission also received four written submissions in support of the proposed designation from Borough President Gale Brewer, Lott Community Development Corporation, and two individuals. Landmarks Preservation Designation Report Designation List 505 Commission Public School 109 LP-2597 March 27, 2018 4 of 28

Summary intended to create large recreational areas while protecting students’ access to light and air from Public School 109 (now El Barrio’s Artspace PS109) future development of neighboring buildings. These courtyards were havens on a site sandwiched between tenement housing and two elevated subway stations at Second and Third avenues. The building’s large multi-paned double-hung windows were made possible by the use of steel-frame construction. Other Public School 109 at 215 East 99th Street, technological innovations included a forced-air constructed in 1899 and transformed in 2015 into an cooling system, electric lighting, ventilated wardrobe affordable housing complex for local artists, is closets, and tile-wainscoted playrooms that were architecturally and culturally significant as a easier to clean. Snyder embraced these advances as a Progressive-era school designed by the means of improving environmental conditions within Superintendent of School Buildings Charles B. J. his buildings, emblematic of the Progressive-era Snyder. Combining the eclectic historicism of the social reforms to which he subscribed. With its Collegiate Gothic style with modern construction ample opportunities for recreation and its light-filled methods and a forward-thinking site plan, P.S. 109 classrooms, the design of P.S. 109 was intended to embodied the goals of urban educational and social create an uplifting educational setting that could help reform at the turn of the 20th century. overcome the congestion, contagion, and social Built during a time of burgeoning school inequalities of the city street. enrollments and an increase in immigrant By the 1960s, the blocks immediately populations in East Harlem, P.S. 109’s five stories surrounding P.S. 109 were radically transformed by could accommodate more than 2,000 students. The urban renewal and the c

… (truncated, full text in PDF)