Boys' High School

The building at 832 Marcy Avenue between Putnam and Madison Avenues has been called one of the finest Romanesque Revival buildings in New York City. The Boys' High School was constructed in 1891 and opened in 1892. The school building is listed in the National Register of Historic Places for its architectural significance. Famous alumni include composer Aaron Copeland, sportscaster Howard Cosell, and author Isaac Asimov. The exterior appeared in the television show The Knick as a Victorian hospital. The auditorium, built in 1911, appears near the end of the Spike Lee film Crooklyn as a concert hall. The building still houses public schools, the Brooklyn Academy High School and the Uncommon Collegiate Charter High School. The school building is part of a National Park Service-certified local historic district, Bedford Historic District.

The Superintendent of Buildings for the City of Brooklyn Schools, James W. Naughton, designed the Boys' High Schoo, which was finished in 1891. Along with the Girls' High School several blocks away (475 Nostrand Ave., also a Naughton design and a Clio entry), the Boys' High School was the first public secondary school in New York City. Even before the Girls' High School opened, the building was too small to hold both boys and girls as planned as Brooklyn's population exploded, so it was decided to split the sexes and build another building for the boys. The Boys' High school opened in September 1892 and was filled to capacity right from the start.

The main facade of the original part of the school spans all of Marcy Ave. from Putnam to Madison Avenues. Earmarks of the Richardsonian Romanesque style are multiple arched openings, a picturesque silhouette, and strong, powerful massing. The left end on Marcy Ave. has a round tower with a conical roof and is decorated with carved portraits of students' faces. There's a taller, square tower on the right corner with a pyramidal roof. A rear addition was built in 1911 in an earlier Romanesque style which included an auditorium and a basement boiler room. The building was expanded to the rear again in 1955 with a new cafeteria in a simple, one-story box-like design in orange brick that ignores the style of the rest of the building. The school building has been featured on postcards.

The City of Brooklyn became a New York City borough in 1898 and the schools became New York City public schools. The city decided to combine the Girls' and Boys' High Schools into a co-educational school and built a new high school building on Fulton Street at Utica Avenue. The Boys' and Girls' High School buildings closed in 1975. The Girls' High School building soon became a center for adult education, but the Boys' High School was vacant for a while before it was turned into a school for difficult students and remedial classes.

The deteriorating former Boys' High School was rehabilitated on the inside and outside in the 1990s. Since the renovations, the building has housed several public-school programs. One is Brooklyn Academy High School which teaches about 140 students aged 16 to 21 who have dropped out of high school or have fallen behind on credits needed to graduate. The fourth floor contains Uncommon Collegiate Charter High School, a continuation of the Uncommon elementary and middle schools, featuring longer school days and longer school years.

Brooklyn Academy High School. Who We Are, Brooklyn Academy High School. January 1st 2022. Accessed January 27th 2022. https://www.brooklynacademyhs.org/.

Dillon, James T. NRHP Nomination of Boys High School. Brooklyn, N.Y. National Register. Washington, DC. National Park Service, 1981.

NYC Historic Districts Council. The Boys' High School, Six to Celebrate. Accessed January 22nd 2022. https://6tocelebrate.org/site/the-boys-high-school/.

Spellen, Suzanne. Building of the Day: 832 Marcy Avenue, Bedford Stuyvesant's Boys High School, Brownstoner. September 9th 2015. Accessed January 26th 2022. https://www.brownstoner.com/neighborhood/boys-high-school-bedford-stuyvesant-brooklyn-history/.

Uncommon Schools. Uncommon Collegiate Charter High School, Uncommon Schools. January 1st 2022. Accessed January 27th 2022. https://nyc.uncommonschools.org/uncommon-collegiate-hs/.