{"id":192660,"date":"2026-04-10T20:37:54","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T20:37:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/192660\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T20:37:54","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T20:37:54","slug":"historic-boerum-hill-school-building-designated-as-landmark-brooklyn-paper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/192660\/","title":{"rendered":"Historic Boerum Hill school building designated as landmark \u2022 Brooklyn Paper"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"boerum\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The historic Public School 15 Annex building was officially landmarked this week. <\/p>\n

Photo by Susan De Vries<\/p>\n

Boerum Hill\u2019s stately Public School 15 Annex building is the borough\u2019s newest individual landmark.\n<\/p>\n

The Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously on Tuesday to recognize the\u00a01889 Romanesque Revival school building<\/a>\u00a0for what staff said at the meeting was its architectural significance and its role in expanding educational opportunities for women, immigrants, and working-class New Yorkers.<\/p>\n

The James Naughton-designed three-story brick building at 372 Schermerhorn Street (formerly 362 Schermerhorn Street) was once called one of the handsomest schools in the city, according to LPC researcher Sarah Eccles. It was\u00a0first built as an extension of Public School 15<\/a>, then was taken over by a girls continuation school in the 1920s. In the evenings, it held adult education classes for both women and men and became a place for immigrants to learn English and get vocational training.<\/p>\n

\"publicThe building was once called \u201cone of the handsomest schools in the city.\u201d Photo by Susan De Vries<\/p>\n

The school was affected by the Depression and closed in 1942, Eccles said, when the Department of Education established it as an outpatient clinic for child psychology and used it to integrate mental health services into schools. In the 1990s, it was turned into a business school and, in recent years, the building has housed the\u00a0Khalil Gibran International Academy<\/a>, the city\u2019s first public school to have an Arabic and English dual language program.<\/p>\n

More recently, the site of Public School 15 and the Annex were included in a controversial rezoning for the new\u00a0mega-development at 80 Flatbush Ave.<\/a> by Alloy. As part of the development, which chiefly comprises residential towers, Alloy has built two new public schools in cooperation with the Educational Construction Fund. The developer is also preserving part of Public School 15 in the project and is fully preserving and adaptively reusing the Public School 15 Annex, Eccles told the commissioners.<\/p>\n

\"mainThe main PS 15 building, which is not landmarked, in December 2025. Photo by Susan De Vries<\/p>\n

Eccles said the school is largely intact and small alterations don\u2019t affect the \u201cornamentation or its significance as an important public school constructed in 1889 to serve the needs of Brooklyn\u2019s growing population,\u201d adding it is a place of \u201carchitectural and cultural significance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Public School 15 Annex reflects an important transitional moment in the work of Superintendent James Naughton, illustrating the evolution of his architectural approach to school design for which he would later become known,\u201d she said. \u201cA place that served multiple functions over its lifetime, that provided education and independence for children, women, and immigrants. The building still reflects its history as a substantial site of opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"annexThe Public School 15 Annex in a circa 1940 tax photo. Photo via New York City Municipal Archives, Department of Records and Information Services<\/p>\n

LPC Chair Angie Masters called it \u201ca standout 1889 school building\u201d and said the school was pioneering for the opportunities it provided young women, many of whom were first and second generation Americans. It is \u201ca significant piece of New York City\u2019s public education history,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Commissioner Stephen Chu said given the surrounding development planned by Alloy, protecting the school was important in retaining some historic fabric in the area. \u201cIt\u2019s a great example of the history of social reform and education in New York City. I think it\u2019s a very important building,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

This story first appeared on Brooklyn Paper\u2019s sister site Brownstoner<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The historic Public School 15 Annex building was officially landmarked this week. Photo by Susan De Vries Boerum…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":192661,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[77060,38824,77061,15608,98,100,99,24556,2184,881,77062,5945,6167,9,24,12,370,63,77063,77064,75854,77065,77066,77067,2220],"class_list":{"0":"post-192660","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn","8":"tag-80-flatbush","9":"tag-alloy","10":"tag-angie-masters","11":"tag-boerum-hill","12":"tag-brooklyn","13":"tag-brooklyn-headlines","14":"tag-brooklyn-news","15":"tag-brownstoner","16":"tag-development","17":"tag-history","18":"tag-james-naughton","19":"tag-landmark","20":"tag-landmarks-preservation-commission","21":"tag-new-york","22":"tag-new-york-city","23":"tag-news","24":"tag-newsletter","25":"tag-nyc","26":"tag-p-s-15","27":"tag-p-s-15-annex","28":"tag-public-school-15","29":"tag-public-school-15-annex-building","30":"tag-romanesque","31":"tag-sarah-eccles","32":"tag-vote"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}