Boys High School (Brooklyn)


Boys High School is a historic and architecturally notable public school building in the Bedford–Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, United States. It is regarded as "one of Brooklyn's finest buildings".

Architecture

The Romanesque Revival building is richly decorated in terracotta somewhat in the style of Louis Sullivan. The building is admired for its round corner tower, dormers, and soaring campanile.
The building was erected in 1891 on the west side of Marcy Avenue between Putnam Avenue and Madison Street. It was designed by James W. Naughton, Superintendent of Buildings for the Board of Education of the City of Brooklyn. The building is regarded as Naughton's "finest work."
When Boys High was landmarked by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1975, the commission called it "one of the finest Romanesque Revival style buildings in the city".
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 25, 1982.

School

In 1975, the same year the building was landmarked, Boys High merged with Girls' High School to become Boys and Girls High School. Boys and Girls High School immediately moved to a new building at Fulton Street and Utica Avenue.
The school was a college preparatory program with high academic standards. Congressman Emanuel Celler described Boys High in his autobiography, "I went to Boys' High School — naturally. I say "naturally" because Boys' High School then, as now, was the high school of scholarships. Boys of Brooklyn today will tell you, "It's a hard school." It was highly competitive..."
Another Boys High graduate remembered that "I went to Boys High School in Brooklyn, a great school. It was out of the classic tradition. I guess eighty percent of the student body had to take Latin — we didn't have to; we elected Latin, because we felt it was expected of us."

Notable alumni