This former schoolhouse built in 1849 in Chelsea is a remnant of New York’s segregated past
It’s a pale yellowish stub of a building on West 17th Street—just three stories high and sheared of any decorative embellishments it had when it was built in pre-Civil War New York City.
But if you look closely, you’ll see some unique features. The top two floors have four multi-paneled windows rather than the typical three. And two identical separate entryways on the ground level seem excessive; for such a small building, one doorway should do.
These features are clues that 128 West 17th Street wasn’t built as a home or commercial structure. As unlikely as it seems, it was originally a schoolhouse. The long windows allowed plenty of light to reach children in their classrooms, and the two doorways would have been the separate entrances for girls and boys.
It’s amazing enough that a school building still exists in today’s Chelsea 175 or so years after it opened, especially since no state law mandated that children even attend school until 1874.
But what makes this little schoolhouse so remarkable is that it spent most of its early decades as a public city “colored school”—one of eight separate, segregated grammar schools in Manhattan for African-American kids. (Below, the school in 1908)
“Colored School No. 4,” as it was known for most of its life, was constructed in 1849-1850 by the Public School Society. Though wealthy families relied on private schools and tutors to educate their kids, working-class and poor children were on their own.
The Society—formed in 1805 by city leaders and with roots in the abolitionist-led Free African School organization of the late 18th century—took on the responsibility of creating free public schools throughout Manhattan.
When it first opened its doors in what was a working-class enclave of modest row houses in the rapidly developing Chelsea neighborhood, this primary school served local kids whose families were English, Scottish, German, French, Italian, or Irish, according to a 2023 report from the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC).
The Public School Society merged with the newly created Board of Education in 1853. By 1860, 128 West 17th Street became a Black primary school—first called Colored School No. 8 and then Colored School No. 4.
“By 1860 many African Americans, who were often limited to where they were able to live, settled the West Side of Manhattan from 10th to 30th streets, and the school reflects this history,” notes the LPC report.
That 19th century New York had a legally segregated school system isn’t well-known; we tend to think of Gotham as a city that has long welcomed people from all backgrounds, at least on paper.
But other facets of city life were also segregated at the time, like hotels, churches, and even streetcars. The end of mass transit segregation was prompted by one fed-up Black rider named Elizabeth Jennings, who pushed back against the Third Avenue Railway Company and won her case in court in 1854 (with help from her lawyer, future president Chester Arthur).
Colored School No. 4 may have been segregated, but that didn’t seem to affect the dedication of the staff. The school was led by Sarah Tompkins Garnet, a pioneering educator and suffrage supporter who came from a Brooklyn farming and merchant family. Garnet was one of the first Black women to become principal of a city school, per the LPC report.
But the school wasn’t immune from racism. During the Draft Riots of July 1863, a mob surrounded the school and tried to break in while students and teachers were inside. “It seemed that two colored women whom they had pursued had taken refuge in the school-building, and they were determined to get at them,” reported the New-York Tribune on July 15.
“The teachers promptly barred all the doors leading into the street,” the newspaper wrote (above). The rioters moved on, turning their attention to a house across the street.
“Later that day, [Garnet] escorted many of the schoolchildren safely to their homes through the dangerous streets before heading to her own home in Brooklyn,” wrote John Freeman Gill in a 2022 New York Times article.
The end of city-endorsed school segregation came in 1883, states the LPC report, and Colored School No. 4 was renamed Public Grammar School 81. By 1894, it was shuttered. Garnet remained school principal until the end.
In the early 1900s, the schoolhouse was leased to a veteran’s association, then underwent a renovation in the 1930s that removed its cornice and added the brick facade.
Still city-owned, it was used by the Sanitation Department as a lunchroom until about a decade ago, according to Gill’s 2022 Times article. (Fifth photo: the school in 1940)
A campaign to acknowledge the school’s place in New York City history, led by historian Eric K. Washington, resulted in landmark status for the building. Right now, 128 West 17th Street is undergoing a much-needed renovation.
While it’s getting rehabbed, the little schoolhouse on a Chelsea sidestreet stands as a remnant of New York’s backstory that’s been mostly forgotten.
[Third image: Real Estate Owned by the City of New York; fourth image: Directory of the Board of Education of the City and County of New York; fifth image: NYC Department of Records & Information Services; sixth image: New-York Tribune July 1863; seventh image: Wikipedia]
