African free school - Village Preservation

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African Free School, First in America for Black Students, Found a Home in Greenwich Village

…Rights and Social Justice Map. Want to learn about more civil rights and social justice sites in our neighborhoods? Check out our map. Sources: https://www.nyhistory.org/web/africanfreeschool/history/ https://www.nyhistory.org/web/africanfreeschool/history/philosophy.html http://cdm16694.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15052coll5/id/31512 http://www.aaregistry.org/historic_events/view/african-free-school-opens-new-york-city https://www.jstor.org/stable/274931?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents http://maap.columbia.edu/place/9…

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African Free School #3, 120 West 3rd Street

…the African Free School L-R: Henry Highland Garnett, Ira Aldridge, Charles Lewis Reason, and Alexander Crummell Click here to read more about the African Free School and sites tied to…

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15 Sites of Critical African American History in Greenwich Village

…first school for Blacks in America, the African Free School African Free School No. 3 was located at 120 West 3rd Street (formerly 120 Amity Street). This was one of…

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14 historic sites of the abolitionist movement in Greenwich Village

…Public Library. African Free School, No. 2, New York. 11. African Free School No. 3, 120 West 3rd Street This was one of seven schools dedicated to the education of the…

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Renowned Actor Ira Frederick Aldridge Gets His Start at the African Grove Theatre

…School starting around the age of thirteen for about two years. The first school for Black students in America, the African Free School was founded over three decades before —…

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How Greenwich Village and the East Village Launched the 19th Century Hebrew Free School Movement

…membership and schools for their children. And so, the Hebrew Free School Association was formed. The Hebrew Free School Association’s Formation and Mandate Many of the earliest synagogues in New…

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2014 Year In Review: GVSHP Programs

…and Presentation of the Village Awards Co-sponsored by The New School Monday, June 16 6:30 – 8:00 P.M. Free; reservations required The Auditorium at The New School 66 West 12th…

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Beyond the Village and Back: Bowne House in Flushing, Queens — Birthplace of Religious Freedom in America

…to form the Manumission Society of New York, which in turn founded the African Free School in 1787. The Manumission Society’s work included protesting the widespread practice of kidnapping black…

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A Complete Guide to the Charles B.J. Snyder Schools in Our Neighborhoods

…and he is credited with designing over 400 public schools throughout our metropolis, representing one of the largest expansions of public education in American history. His revolutionary approach to school…

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Civil Rights, the NAACP, and W.E.B. DuBois: The African American history tied to 70 Fifth Avenue

…African-American colleges and African American studies (DuBois himself would teach the very first course in African American history just feet from here at The New School in 1948). DuBois reported…

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Beyond the Village and Back: Historic Weeksville, Brooklyn

…550 African-Americans. It had its own churches, including Bethel Tabernacle African Methodist Episcopal Church and the Berean Missionary Baptist Church. Its school, Colored School No. 2, was the first school…

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Great NYC Museums Go #BeyondTheVillageAndBack

…African Free School #2 on Mulberry Street and the Phoenix High School of Colored Youth. Garnet began his career as a pastor, leading the congregation of the Liberty Street Presbyterian…

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Beyond the Village and Back: The Children’s Aid Society’s Fourteenth Ward Industrial School on Mott Street

…lot behind the building. Fourteenth Ward Industrial School, 1895. Photo Courtesy of Children’s Aid Society Annual Report. The Fourteenth Ward Industrial School served as an industrial and night school until…

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Black History Month 2018 – Learn and Celebrate with Us!

…as The African Free School, the first school for African Americans in the country, founded on November 2, 1787 by the New-York Manumission Society and founding fathers Alexander Hamilton and…

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Community Cornerstone: Little Red School House-Elisabeth Irwin High School

Elisabeth Irwin founded Little Red School House in 1921. Image via LREI. In 2012, GVSHP spotlighted the work of Little Red School House/Elisabeth Irwin High School on Off the Grid…

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Pioneers Converge on MacDougal Street: Dr. Robert Hogan, Rev. Henry Highland Garnet, and Sarah Smith Garnet

…system, for which she worked for 37 years. When she began teaching in 1854, the public schools were racially segregated, including her school, the African Free School of Williamsburg. Today, the Sarah…

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Former Schools of Greenwich Village and the East Village

…many schools in our neighborhoods have come and gone over the decades, while others have stuck around. While all these schools served the function of educating young people, many also…

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No Need for a Mock UN at One East Village Elementary School

…neighborhoods, were the site of a number of urban renewal projects that rearranged the density and placed additional strain on already overcrowded schools. Plus the school serving the area, PS…

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Charles Snyder’s Historic Schools in the East Village

The distinctive H plan of many NYC schools that Snyder designed, here the former P.S. 64/CHARAS building. Each year, New York City’s 1 million public school students return to school…

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The Biggest Mural in NYC, On View, For Now, at City-As-School

…swept the country during the 70s and 80s, popularizing the Deweyan school-without-borders model. From the start, City-As-School operated as a “transfer school,” a school designed to re-engage students who have…

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North America’s First Freed Black Settlement Right in our Neighborhood

…New Amsterdam. Each number corresponds to a freed African landholder and is described in the GVSHP Civil Rights and Social Justice map. Each number corresponds to a freed African landholder…

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Back To School

…time when “the Board of Education had 271 schools under its jurisdiction, including 95 grammar schools, 101 primary schools, 14 ‘colored’ schools, 29 evening schools for working children, 3 normal…

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Little Free Libraries of Our Neighborhoods and Beyond

…garden near 487 Hudson Street) Hudson Square Little Free Library (Located in Freeman Plaza West) Corlears Hook Park Little Free Library (Located in the park near 479 Cherry Street) Seward…

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North America’s First Free Black Settlement In Our Neighborhoods

…people of African descent was seized by wealthy white landowners who turned these former free black settlements into retreats, farms, and plantations. The landowners in this first settlement of free…

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W.E.B. Du Bois Makes – and Teaches – History at the New School, September 27, 1948

…with hundreds of other important moments and places in history located in our neighborhoods. Du Bois taught at the New School for the 1948-1949 school year, teaching the first African-American…

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The African Grove Theater — Black Theater’s Beginnings in Our Neighborhood

…of free and enslaved Black people. Many free Black people lived along the no longer extant Minetta Creek, in an area that came to be known as “Little Africa.” This…

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Beyond the Village and Back: The Aguilar Free Circulating Library

…of international financier and trustee of the Society Jacob Schiff, the Society had purchased the East Broadway and East Fifth Street buildings from the Hebrew Free School (read more about…

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A Vibrant Tapestry: African American History in Our Neighborhoods

…in civil rights history. This includes more than four dozen connected to African American civil rights, from the first free Black settlement in North America to the sites of the…

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Village Preservation Resources for African American History Month

…in the history of the United States. After the riots, approximately one-fifth of New York’s African American population left the city. Explore this and other key moments of African American…

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Black History Month in the Village: African-American & LGBT Historic Sites

…predominantly African American in the 19th century and known to be home to many African American musicians. It is a coincidence that Gay Street is located just one block from…

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The African Grove Theater

…Theater. The African Grove Theater was founded by William Alexander Brown, a free African American and pioneering actor and playwright. Through his work as a ship’s steward, he traveled extensively…

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Beyond the Village and Back: The Juilliard School

…East Village, and NoHo, celebrate their special histories, and reveal their (sometimes hidden) connections to our neighborhoods. The Juilliard School is one of the world’s most respected schools for the…

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Third Street Music School’s Long Journey to 11th Street

…another settlement house located nearby. The College and University Settlements then combined music schools to form the Music School of the University and College Settlements. This new school was located…

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Anarchy in the East Village! The Ferrer Modern School

The Modern School, c. 1911-1912, from the Friends of the Modern School website. The East Village was the first home of the Ferrer Modern School of New York City. First…

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East Village Building Blocks Tour: African American History

People of African descent have lived in the area now known as the East Village since the mid-17th century, when semi-freed African slaves of the Dutch West India Company in…

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Celebrate African American History Month and the Elizabeth Blackwell Bicentennial and Join Us in Fighting to Protect This Critical History

This February is African American History Month, a time to highlight and celebrate the rich history of African American struggle, success, and life in our neighborhoods over the last four…

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In Memoriam: African American Artists of Westbeth

…African Americans in general and African-American actors in particular. In the late 1950s he co-organized with Godfrey Cambridge and Maya Angelou fundraisers for Martin Luther King, Jr. at the Village…

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Sarah Smith Garnet: Suffragist, Principal, Villager

…for 37 years. When she began teaching in 1854, the public schools were racially segregated, including her school, the African Free School of Williamsburg. She was the first African-American woman…

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The Freedman’s Bank in the South Village

…The Freedmen’s Bank, was created by the United States Congress to aid freedmen in their transition from slavery to freedom. During the bank’s existence, 37 branches were opened in 17…

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C.B.J. Snyder and the East Village

…to 1922, Snyder designed close to three hundred fifty schools and school additions, nearly all of which were considered landmarks of educational design. Unfortunately, not all of the master’s school…

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Marking African-American History Month in the Village

…February is African-American History Month, now seems like an especially appropriate time to highlight the African-American history of the South Village, the subject of a separate chapter in the South…

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Anthony Congo, Freed Slave and Early Lower Manhattan Landowner

…years of the founding of New Amsterdam and their being brought to the colony as slaves. In some cases, these free black settlers were among the very first Africans brought…

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The Landmarked New School Auditorium — Home of Village Preservation’s 2019 Annual Meeting and Village Awards

…adjoining lot. The New School for Social Research Auditorium. Image via LPC designation report, Carl Forster The New School desired a building whose architecture would reflect the institution’s progressive philosophies….

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The Largest School in the World

…The school still exists as P.S. 188, and is now known as The Island School. The building is also home to Girls Prep Lower East Side Elementary Charter School. P.S….

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New Evidence of 19th Century African American Life in Our Neighborhoods

…looking for information about it, I came across this in the 1859-60 directory: Greenwich Village has a long history as a home to African Americans, as free blacks were actually…

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Learn About Radical Social Movements in the Village and the Battle for Free Speech

…of Law at Brooklyn Law School. Susan Herman is the inaugural Ruth Bader Ginsburg Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School. Like Ginsburg, she served as General Counsel to the American…

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New African-American History Curriculum for Children’s Education Program

Just in time for the upcoming Black History Month, Village Preservation has developed a new, four-part course on African American history for middle school students as part of our Children’s Education…

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It’s Back to School at GVSHP’s Lecture Tonight!

Feeling the end-of-summer/back-to-school blues? Get back in the academic spirit this evening with our free lecture- C. B. J. Snyder’s School Design in the Village. PS 3 on Hudson Street…

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African American History in the East Village

…to some remarkably consequential events, places, and figures in African-American history. To help explore just some of them, we have created a new African American History Guided Tour on our…

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Underground Railroad Church Once Located in Greenwich Village Led Abolitionist Cause

…was granted permission to attend a funeral and used the opportunity to escape to Delaware, and then to New York City. Garnet, who attended the African Free School and the…

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New Historic Images- Astor Place, 10th Street, Village Community School, and more.

…constructed in 1885-86 as Primary School No. 7 and redesignated as Public School 107 in 1897. Following demographic changes, the school was closed in June 1930 and was acquired by the New…

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The New School vs. NYU — A Telling Comparison

…review. The New School‘s University Center under construction at 5th Avenue and 14th Street (image courtesy of Curbed.com) The comparison is quite telling… First, The New School’s (TNS) University Center…

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A Tale of Four Schools — Program Thursday

…and one of his famous “H”-plan schools. Architect CBJ Snyder was a prolific designer of New York public school buildings, completing more than 350 schools in the late 19th…

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African American history in the Sullivan Thompson Historic District

Off the Grid has previously taken a look at African American history in the South Village, which was home to almost a quarter of the city’s African-American population during the…

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February: GVSHP celebrates African-American History Month

…Off the Grid blog posts: Spring Street Presbyterian Church (an early abolitionist congregation) Marking African-American History Month in the Village African Americans in the South Village Civil War Draft Riots…

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Little Africa: Tracing African Americans in the South Village

…from the organizations, institutions, and stores that still exist today. But it is much harder to trace the African-American community that called the Village home from the 1860s through the…

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GVSHP African American History Month Series: Revisiting Spring Street Presbyterian Church

…this month with specific focus on the history of the African-American community in Greenwich Village. On Monday, February 9, archivist David Pultz will give an illustrated lecture at the First…

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African-American Music Crosses Genres #SouthOfUnionSquare

June is named African-American Music Appreciation Month. But insofar as it is hard to conceive of genres of American music that have not been fundamentally shaped or originated by Black…

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Villager and Groundbreaking African American Soprano Leontyne Price

…the former home of Leontyne Price Ms. Price was one of the first internationally recognized African-American opera stars. Her career broke through racial barriers at a time when the United…

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Henry Highland Garnet and the Village

…185 Bleecker Street. African Free School. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Garnet was born in Maryland, but in 1824, his family (consisting of 11 members) was given permission to attend…

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Grace Church Choir Celebrates its 125th Anniversary with a Free Concert

Did someone say FREE CONCERT? Yes, indeed we did! Celebrating the 125th anniversary of its historic choir, Grace Church is offering a free concert featuring current choir members and alumni,…

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A Tradition of Progressive Education

…and Country School and The Little Red School House-Elisabeth Irwin High School were founded in the early 20th century and as part of the progressive education movement. The City and…

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Back to School! GVSHP’s Children’s Education Program

…school teacher, or a parent of an elementary school child, and you are interested in GVSHP’s Children’s Education program, please let us know. You can call 212-475-9585 x 34, or…

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Romare Bearden and the Formation of An African American Artistic Identity Downtown

…search of a better life as so many other southern African Americans did during the first wave of the Great Migration, and it’s with Harlem that Bearden is most closely…

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127, 129, and 131 MacDougal Street: Architecture, Artists, African Americans, and “Alternative Lifestyles”

…as by the mid-to-late 19th century, Greenwich Village was home to the “Little Africa” neighborhood, the largest African American community in New York and the center of African American life in…

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Highlighting Landmarking Effort for 50 West 13th Street’s African American Voting Rights Crusader

…African American citizens, and a crusader for abolition, equality, and voting rights for African Americans. Mayor de Blasio refused to support landmark designation of the site. With the building having…

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Dr. Rebecca Cole, African-American Female Medical Pioneer Who Changed Lives On Bleecker Street

…Illustrated Newspaper.” Source: Library of Congress In 1867, Rebecca J. Cole became only the second African American woman to receive a medical degree in the United States. (Another Rebecca, Rebecca…

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An Intersectional Black History Month Roundup

…York State abolished slavery in 1827, the number of African Free Schools expanded to seven to accommodate their children. The Third African Free School was established in 1831 on MacDougal…

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3000 Beatniks and the Right to Free Speech

…emerged over the next two turbulent decades around free speech issues. It remains a cornerstone of the long fight for free speech and artistic expression in our city and country….

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From Parking Lot to Car Free Washington Square Park

…Council and supported by local Council Members Corey Johnson, Rosie Mendez and Margaret Chin, also make today Car Free NYC day. Map from Washington Square Park Blog Three areas around the city were selected for…

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The Children’s Aid Society’s Deep Roots in Greenwich Village and the East Village

…York; German immigrants escaping unemployment and religious and political oppression following the failed 1848 revolutions came streaming in; and recently freed African Americans (most northern states had abolished slavery by…

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New York School Painter Janice Biala’s “Pendulating Spirit”

…York School of Artists. Referred to as “the Artists’ Sessions at Studio 35,” the conference took place from April 21-23 in 1950 — one year before the landmark Ninth Street…

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What’s Up With that Rotting School on East 9th Street?

The view from E. 10th Street, shot today. The school is a classic “H-plan” (block-through, in the shape of an H from above) created by noted architect and schools superintendent…

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The Ashcan School and the Beginnings of the Whitney

…Studio School now resides in the museum’s original address.) George Bellows, “Dempsey and Firpo” (1924) The Whitney Museum of American Art You can read more about the Ashcan School here….

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Village Preservation Historic Plaques Honoring African Americans in Our Neighborhood

…also serves as an obvious reminder that a site is historically significant. For African American History month, we’re taking a look at a number of historic plaques we’ve placed throughout…

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Art in the Village: The Ashcan School

Robert Henri, “Snow in New York” (1902) The Ashcan School refers to a loosely knit group of urban realist painters based in New York City during the early 20th century….

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Let Freedom Ring: The East Village’s (Older) Liberty Bell

…reached the ground, current presiding minister Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis rang the bell 19 times — commemorating both Juneteenth and the first enslaved Africans brought to this nation in 1619….

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Old P.S. 64 on the L.E.S. — Immigrant School Innovator and Latinx Culture Leader

…model in public school design. Unlike many Snyder schools, this building’s design was not repeated for any other school location. Click here to read more about how this innovative building…

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Robert de Niro, Sr. and the New York School Artists #SouthOfUnionSquare

…School — the neighborhood South of Union Square and its environs were host to a number of influential artists and movements like Abstract Expressionism, the Ninth Street Five, and “The…

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African American, Feminist, & LGBTQ Solidarity at the Women’s House of Detention

…of the LGBTQ movement, took part in organizing around-the-clock protests of the prison. Protestor outside the Women’s House of Detention at the Prisoners’ Rights and “Free the Panther 21” demonstration,…

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VILLAGE VOICES 2022 Highlights the Extraordinary History of 70 Fifth Avenue

…for an African-American audience and for African-American children, and what would become the American Civil Liberties Union, among many other entities. Following a campaign led by Village Preservation, the building…

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The Legacy of W.E.B. Du Bois Reverberates Throughout Our Neighborhoods

…worked with W.E.B. Du Bois as a staffer of the Black newspaper Freedom in the early 1950s. Du Bois founded a later iteration of Freedom, called Freedomways: A Quarterly Review of…

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Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Mountaintop

…records), a theater known as the African Grove Theater. The African Grove Theater was founded by William Alexander Brown, a free African American and pioneering actor and playwright. Through his…

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Beyond the Village and Back: Harlem’s St. James Presbyterian Church

…the opportunity to escape to Delaware, and then to New York City. Garnet, who attended the African Free School and the Phoenix High School of Colored Youth, began his career…

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Building Profile: P.S. 25, now P.S. 751

…ten schools and one addition that Snyder built in the neighborhood, nine schools remain. Three of these date to the nineteenth century, and six still function as public schools. P.S….

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November 2023 Programs: Jane Jacobs, the Former “Colored” School No. 4, and More

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Exploring Black History in the East Village and NoHo

…found in the East Village and NoHo, starting with a theater group in the early 19th century. African Grove Theater The African Grove Theater was the first known black theater…

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13 places in Greenwich Village where the course of history was changed

…these African slaves were granted freedom and given land in an area north of the New Amsterdam colony which came to be known as “the Land of the Blacks.” This first settlement…

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The Birth of the NAACP, and Their Deep Roots in Greenwich Village

…organization advocating tot the civil rights of African Americans in the United States. During the first decade of the 20th Century, the rate of lynchings of African Americans, particularly men,…

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The Supposed Streets of Little Africa

…his role as minister, Varick ran a school, was the first chaplain of the New York African Society for Mutual Relief and a vice president of the African Bible Society,…

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LREI: 2012 Village Award Winner

…least as part of a public school. Parents and reformers raised funds to continue the program, but the school system would not reopen the school. Irwin, along with parents and…

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Landmarks50- The Police Athletic League Building

…changed to Girls High School. In 1900 the school was renamed for Lydia Wadleigh, a teacher at Grammer School 47 and founder of the 12th Street Advance School for Girls. In 1902…

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A Landmark’s Long Fight for Life

The former Public School 64, which once housed the CHARAS community and cultural center, was designed by master school architect C.B.J. Snyder in the French Renaissance Revival style in 1904-06….

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C.B.J. Snyder and P.S. 64

…schools, ten junior high schools, and twenty high schools. One of the most prominent and noteworthy examples of Snyder’s work can be found right here in the East Village —…

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Setting Women Up for Success: Lydia Fowler Wadleigh

…Grammar School 47, an all-girls school which the landmark designation report notes “was one of the first New York City schools built exclusively for the education of girls at a…

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James Varick, the Village, and Zion AME Church

…mother were freed and moved to New York City. The church he helped found, what would grow to be Zion African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, had a profound effect on…

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12 social change champions of Greenwich Village

…dispersal of federal funds and decried the poor conditions at African American schools and facilities in her weekly column. She frequently invited African American guests to the White House, which…

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Joe Papp Created a Theater By and For The People

…was born—free Shakespeare in the Park—drawing thousands for every performance, then and now. After two successful seasons of free Shakespeare in Central Park, Papp ran afoul of the infamous Robert…

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19th Century Fire at East Village Icon Changed the Skyline, and Safety Rules

…at 302 East 8th Street, the former St. Ann’s School at 113 East 11th Street, the Hebrew Free School at 624 5th Street (demolished) and St. Anthony’s School at 60…

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Women’s History and Our Civil Rights Map

…first colleges for women. Lydia Fowler Wadleigh (left) and Grammar School 47 In 1897, the site became the city’s first high school for girls; when that school relocated to Harlem…

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