“It is the ambition of every Brooklyn girl after graduating from the public schools to enter the Girls’ High School, where she may enjoy the advantages of advanced education, and be prepared for college or for more immediate concerns of life.”
That was the lead in a New York Times story about Girls’ High in 1895, when Brooklyn was a separate city known for its strong support of public schools.
The postcard at the top of the page gives us Girls’ High as a Victorian Gothic dream building, opened in 1886 at Nostrand Avenue and Halsey Street.
So proud of the school was the newly unified city that they put it on a postcard.
Today the combined Boys and Girls High School is on Fulton Street, and the old Girls’ building is an adult learning center.
[First image: NYPL; second image: 6tocelebrate.org]
Tags: Bed-Stuy Schools, Boys and Girls High School, brooklyn high schools, Brooklyn in 19th century, Girls High School Nostrand Avenue Brooklyn, old Brooklyn
Ephemeral New York 
March 26, 2018 at 7:42 am |
[…] Source: FS – NYC Real Estate Girls’ High School is a Gothic dream in Bed-Stuy […]
March 26, 2018 at 1:59 pm |
Boys HS on Marcy Ave is no slouch either!
March 26, 2018 at 4:46 pm |
can you imagine if we were as proud of our schools and their buildings today?
March 26, 2018 at 5:44 pm |
I agree about Boys High—I just loved this particular postcard, right out of a movie, with that moon and the lone woman in black in the picture.
March 26, 2018 at 9:46 pm |
My earlier comment from very early this morning went missing into the ether. (? New iPhone that won’t load all photos either).
I wrote how I love the name of this school. That it reminds me of something Roald Dahl would have put in a book inc. the fantastic image in this card. And reminds me of those 1960s films like The Trouble with Angels; about girls schools where they get into all sort of mad mischief w/ the nuns.
I wonder if the illustrator/artist (painted photo?) was having a lark along these very lines w/this darkly glowering sky & the shadowy Moon in the image. The Moon symbolising the feminine.
Yet another lovely post Ephemeral! 🌙
March 27, 2018 at 2:46 pm |
Thank you! I like the moon symbolizing femininity, I imagine that was done intentionally!
March 31, 2018 at 1:20 am |
Glad the building is being re-used.
August 29, 2022 at 5:11 am |
[…] New York City was once so proud of the new schools that went up across all five boroughs during the school-building frenzy at the turn of the 20th century, several schools made it onto postcards. […]
September 3, 2022 at 3:11 am |
Reblogged this on Site Title.