Public School 71K

The red brick building with the central tower at 125 Heyward St. in the Williamsburg neighborhood was once Brooklyn Public School 71K. The French Second Empire style building dates to 1889. The school was later named for Edward Rutledge, the youngest signer of the Declaration of Independence. The building was purchased in 1952 to become a Jewish school. The building housed a Jewish girls-only private school, Bais Rochel, and now serves as United Talmudical Academy. A senior citizens center also operates from the building. The former P.S. 71K building was listed in 1982 as a New York City landmark and in the National Register of Historic Places for its architectural significance. The building has a "twin" - the Excellence Charter School in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood.

The first free school in Brooklyn was held in a church on Bridge Street and taught by a Huguenot; the Dutch colonists allotted a total of $20 of tax funds annually to the school. The first public school in the village of Williamsburg was built in 1826 on North First Street; Williamsburg became part of the City of Brooklyn in 1855. By 1891, the City of Brooklyn's annual taxes budgeted to the public schools was over $1.6 million.

James W. Naughton, an employee of the City of Brooklyn Public Schools, designed the P.S. 71 building, as well as a number of other schools in Brooklyn. Naughton served as superintendent of buildings from 1879 to 1898. The school was built by the Brooklyn firm P.J. Carlin & Son, who also built the Boys' High School and a number of other Brooklyn public schools. Daniel F. Blaney, a manufacturer of "artificial stone pavement," laid the flooring at P.S. 71. The central block of the symmetrical, three-story red brick structure with stone trim is topped by a tower with a mansard roof. The main entrance is in the base of the tower, under a round arch. The two end pavilions are topped by pediments. The high mansard roof features iron cresting.

The principal of P.S. 71 in the early 1890s was Joseph S. Burns; head of the department of 20 teachers was Beatrice H. Slaight. The school was considered a branch of P.S. 33, which was located on Heyward St. near Broadway. P.S. 71 was known as the Edward Rutledge School by 1918 and was still a New York City public school. The principal in 1918 was Martha S. McLoughlin, supervising 23 teachers in 20 classrooms. Attorney Edward Rutledge (1749-1800) was the youngest signer of the Declaration of Independence. He and fellow South Carolinian Thomas Heyward Jr. (1746-1809) were imprisoned for a year in St. Augustine, Florida after the British captured Charleston, South Carolina in 1780. Heyward is the namesake of the street where the school stands; the street behind the school is named for Rutledge. Rutledge served as a Congressional representative after the war, and later was governor of South Carolina until his death.

By the early 1950s, the building was no longer owned by the City of New York. Harry, Saul, Morris, and Fay Koss sold the building to the Bais Yaakov of Williamsburg in late 1952. The new owners operated a Jewish parochial school in the structure for many years.

Anonymous. "School Building Sold in Brooklyn." New York Times (Nwe York) December 27th 1952. 19-19.

Benardo, Leonard. Weiss, Jennifer. Brooklyn by Name: How the Neighborhoods, Streets, Parks, Bridges and More Got their Names. New York, NY. New York University Press, 2006.

Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Brooklyn Daily Eagle Almanac, 1918. Edition January. Volume XXXIII. Brooklyn, NY. Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 1918.

Dillon, James T. NRHP Nomination of Public School 71K, Brooklyn, N.Y. National Register. Washington, DC. National Park Service, 1982.

New York Architecture. Beth Jacob School, New York Architecture Images - Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Accessed March 3rd 2022. http://www.nyc-architecture.com/WBG/wbg002.htm.

NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission. Designation Report, Public School 71K (now Beth Jacob School). NYC Landmarks. New York, NY. New York City Government, 1981.

Whitlock, E. J. Souvenir of Our Public Schools, Brooklyn, N.Y. New York, NY. L'Artiste Publishing Co., 1892.