PS 39 History Brief Facts Links
(the first is PS 34 in Greenpoint which was originally built as a hospital)
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle's July 1877 article announced the upcoming first day of school, September 1877.
PS 39 was built as a school by the City of Brooklyn to serve the south Brooklyn community.
Brooklyn Public Library's has the Brooklyn Daily Eagle article online Reprinted below:
Structure No. 39 as it Looks Completed
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A Fine Building for the Children of South Brooklyn
With the opening of the Public School year in September another school house will be thrown open of the accommodation of the children this that district of South Brooklyn, bounded by the Park on one side and Fourth Avenue. It seems to be a query whether it will be opened as Primary No. 2, or Grammar School No. 39. The latter is the inscription on the front, and yet it is said to have been originally intended for a primary school.
The building is nearly completed and will be opened in September. It stands on the corner of Sixth avenue and Eighth street, fronting to the west, and is one of the handsomest school buildings in Brooklyn. It's site is certainly one of the most beautiful in the city , for from the upper windows you can see all over the city and the Bay to the shores of Staten Island and New Jersey.
The lot on which the building stands is 172 feet deep and 100 feet wide. The building is 110 feet 6 inches long and 56 feet wide, is three stories high with basement and mansard roof, and is built in what might be called the Romanesque style of architecture. The material is brick, with brown stone trimmings.
THE FIRST STORY
is 7 feet 6 inches above the sidewalk, the foundation walls from the ground to the water table, being in square stone. The front is divided by a tower which rises above the main entrance. This divides the front into three points running clear to the roof, and separated from each other by brown stone trimmings, the corners being of ground stone. There are three double windows in each story in the front, one in the tower and one on each side. The windows are bordered with brown stone trimmings and a keystone of Nova Scotia stone.
The roof rises in a central tower, with smaller towers at the corner that just rise above the line of the roof. From the sidewalk to the top of the central towers it is about 90 feet. Passing up the front steps you enter a vestibule, and on the left hand is the stairway leading to the floor above. On the right is a class room, and directly in front on the other side of the vestibule partition is the teacher’s platform, while on the left of the platform is the teacher’s room. The balance of this floor 85 feet long and about 50 feet wide, is at present designed for a play room but by putting up the necessary partitions can be transformed into class rooms. It is 14 feet high, and like all the other floors, is admirably lighted.
The second floor is the first one devoted to class rooms. In it's size and general arrangements it is the same as the floors below except that it is divided into class rooms , four on each side of the central partition and one in the front right hand corner. They are of about the same size and will average about 20 feet square.
The top floor is the same as the others in size and interior arrangements.
On each side of the building is a small wing enclosing a stairway to the second floor, and in the rear is another wind also enclosing a stairway which reaches to the third floor. These stairways are broad, and the fact that they are entirely outside the building in a structure by themselves gives an added security in case of fire. The third floor has the front and rear stairways for escape in case of danger, and the second floor the front and two side exits.
The basement is devoted to the heating apparatus and in it's construction the aim has been to bring into operation the most recent discoveries and improvements in this line. How to best accomplish the ventilation of a large building is still a vexed question, and in very many of our public buildings it has seemed as though the air in view had been “how not to do it,” but while in the case of this school the system of warming and ventilating does not differ from that in use in other school houses of the Department, yet such alterations and improvements as experience has suggested have been made.
In the rear, on Eighth street and Seventh avenue, will be the janitor’s house, 18 by 30 feet and two stories high. It's general appearance assimilates with the school building. A fence divides the playground in the rear into two yards, separating the boys and girls when at play. The crest of the roof is crowned with graceful ironwork, and the general effect of the whole structure is pleasing. At any rate, it offers a little break in the monotony of style which has hitherto distinguished most of the new school structures. The windows in the side are single but numerous, and light each floor admirably, while the airy situation will afford plenty of fresh air. The building and it's appointments cost as follows:
Mason work ………………………………………………………………………$29,250
Carpenter work …………………………………………………………………….19,487
Heating ………………………………………………………………………………4,500
Furniture ……………………………………………………………………………..3,000
Total ……………………………………………………………………………….$56,237
posted by PS39 PTA at 10:59 PM
