Boys High School (Brooklyn) Explained

Boys High School
Location:	832 Marcy Ave, New York
Coordinates:	40.6844°N -73.9483°W
Built:	1891
Architect:	James W. Naughton, C. B. J. Snyder
Architecture:	Romanesque, Rundbogenstil
Added:	February 25, 1982
Area:	1.9acres
Designated Other2 Abbr:	NYCL
Designated Other2 Date:	September 23, 1975
Designated Other2 Name:	New York City Landmark
Designated Other2 Link:	New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission
Designated Other2 Color:	FFE978
Refnum:	82003361

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".^[1]

Architecture

The Romanesque Revival building is richly decorated in terracotta somewhat in the style of Louis Sullivan.^[2] The building is admired for its round corner tower, dormers, and soaring campanile.^[3]

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.^[4] The building is regarded as Naughton's "finest work."^[5]

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".^[6] It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 25, 1982.

The building was the exterior filming location for the Knickerbocker Hospital in the television show The Knick.^[7]

School

In 1975, the same year the building was landmarked, Boys High merged with Girls' High School to become Boys and Girls High School.^[6] Boys and Girls High School immediately moved to a new building at Fulton Street and Utica Avenue.^[6]

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..."^[8]

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."^[9]

Notable alumni

• Isaac Asimov (1920–1992), author
• John Barsha (born Abraham Barshofsky; 1898–1976), American professional football player
• Jules Bender (1914–1982), collegiate and professional basketball player
• Cy Block (1919–2004), professional baseball player^[10]
• Himan Brown (1910–2010), producer of radio programs
• Anatole Broyard (1920–1990), essayist, literary critic
• Emanuel Celler (1888–1981), U.S. Representative for almost 50 years
• Aaron Copland (1900–1990), classical composer, composition teacher, writer, and conductor
• Howard Cosell (born Howard William Cohen, 1918–1995), television sports journalist
• Mel Davis (born 1950), professional basketball player
• Tommy Davis (born 1939), Major League Baseball player
• I. A. L. Diamond (1920–1988), screenwriter
• Martin Dobelle (1906–1986), orthopedic surgeon
• Hal Draper (born Harold Dubinsky, 1914–1990), socialist activist and author
• Ted Draper (1912–2006), historian and political writer
• Lee Farr (1927–2017), actor^[11]
• Leon Festinger (1919–1989), social psychologist
• Mickey Fisher (1904/05–1963), basketball coach
• Benjamin Graham (1894–1978), father of value investing
• Al Goldstein (1936-2013), pornographer
• Alfred Gottschalk (1930–2009), rabbi, leader in Reform Judaism movement
• Jerome Anthony "Little Anthony" Gourdine (born 1941), lead singer of The Imperials
• Sihugo "Si" Green (1933–1980), professional basketball player
• Ezra E. H. Griffith (born 1942), psychiatrist
• Daniel Gutman (1901-1993), lawyer, state senator, state assemblyman, president justice of the municipal court, and law school dean.
• Connie Hawkins (1942–2017), basketball Hall of Famer
• Will Herberg (1901–1977), political activist, philosopher, and author^[12]
• Edward Everett Horton Jr. (1886 - 1970), character actor in film, television, radio, and theater^[13]
• Gene Kelly (1918–1979), major league sportscaster^[14]
• W. Langdon Kihn (1898–1957), portrait painter and illustrator
• Morris Kline (1908–1992), professor of mathematics
• Joseph Isaac Kramer (1924–2021), doctor^[15]
• Benjamin Lax (1915–2015), physicist elected to National Academy of Sciences
• William Levitt (1907–1994), developer of Levittown^[16]
• Harry E. Lewis (1880–1948), lawyer, Brooklyn district attorney, New York Supreme Court Justice
• Norman Lloyd (1914–2021), actor, director and producer
• Norman Mailer (1923–2007), novelist, journalist, playwright, screenwriter, actor and film director
• Mickey Marcus (1901–1948), US Army colonel who became Israel's first general
• Ernest Martin (born 1932), theatre director and manager, actor
• Abraham Maslow (1908–1970), professor of psychology
• Will Maslow (1907–2007), lawyer and civil rights leader
• Sean Michaels (born 1958), pornographic actor
• Irving Mondschein (1924–2015), track and field champion
• Jack Newfield (1938-2004), journalist
• Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitzky, 1890–1976), artist
• Max Roach (1924–2007), jazz percussionist, drummer, and composer
• E. Ivan Rubenstein (1895–1955), lawyer and judge
• Meyer Schapiro (1904-1996), art historian
• Aubrey Schenck (1908–1999), motion picture producer
• Allie Sherman (1923–2015), National Football League player and head coach
• Meier Steinbrink (1880–1967), lawyer and New York Supreme Court Justice
• Fred Thompson (1933–2019) Hall of Fame Track and Field Coach
• Lawrence Tierney (1919-2002), movie actor
• Solly Walker (1932-2017), first African American to play for St. John's University basketball team
• Alexander S. Wiener (1907–1976), leader in fields of forensic medicine, serology, and immunogenetics
• Lenny Wilkens (born 1937), NBA player and coach; Hall of Fame player and coach
• Izzy Yablok (1907–1983), football player

Distinguished faculty

• Mickey Fisher (1935-1962), Basketball coach made the Final Four every year from 1956 to 1962, coach of the Israeli Men's Olympic basketball team, Rome 1960.^{[17] [18]}
• James Sullivan (1873-1931), Principal (1907-1916), later Director of the YMCA for the American Expeditionary Forces, New York State Historian, and Director of Archives and History.^[19]

See also

• List of New York City Landmarks

External links

• Images of Boys' High School

Notes and References

1. Book: Robbins, Michael W. . Brooklyn: a State of Mind . registration . Wendy . Palitz . Workman Publishing . 2001 . 228 . 978-0761116356.
2. Web site: New York Architecture Images - Brooklyn Bedford-Stuyvesant: Boys’ High School. New York Architecture .
3. Web site: Boys' High School . . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20101128231604/http://nycago.org/Organs/Bkln/html/BoysHighSchool.html . November 28, 2010 . mdy .
4. An architectural guidebook to Brooklyn, Francis Morrone, Photographs by James Iska, Gibbs Smith, 2001, p. 37.
5. http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2009/09/walkabout_with_20.php "Walkabout with Montrose: Master of Schools, JW Naughton,"
6. News: Boys High School And Historic Dock Made Landmarks; Boys High And a Dock Are Cited . Joseph P. . Fried . October 5, 1975 . New York Times .
7. Web site: NYC Film Locations for Steven Soderbergh's The Knick. October 15, 2014. Untapped New York.
8. Book: Celler, Emanuel . You Never Leave Brooklyn: the Autobiography of Emanuel Celler . The John Day Company . 1953 . 31.
9. Book: Simons, Howard . Jewish Times: Voices of the American Jewish Experience . Anchor Books . 1990 . 262 . 978-0385266970.
10. News: Pfaff . Chris . A Fan For All . 31 July 2023 . . 7 June 1992 . 10.
11. News: Lee Farr obituary . . 2017-03-27 . 2017-04-16.
12. Book: Ausmus, Harry J. . Will Herberg: From Right to Right . Chapel Hill, NC . University of North Carolina Press . 1987 . 2 . 0-8078-1724-4 .
13. Web site: 1 Oct 1970 . Edward Everett Horton Is Dead; Comic Character Actor Was 83 . NYTimes.com.
14. Web site: Gene Kelly, Announcer, Was ‘Voice of Phillies’. September 20, 1979. NYTimes.com.
15. News: Traub. Alex. 2021-09-08. Joseph I. Kramer, the ‘Country Doctor’ of Avenue D, Dies at 96. en-US. The New York Times. 2021-09-11. 0362-4331.
16. Book: Kamil, Seth . The Big Onion Guide to Brooklyn . Eric . Wakin . New York University Press . 2005 . 64 . 978-0814747858 . registration .
17. Web site: tmboys&girls. wilburcoach0.tripod.com.
18. Web site: MICKEY FISHER, BROOKLYN COACH; Sports Director, Formerly of Boys High, Dies at 58. timesmachine.nytimes.com.
19. Web site: DR. JAMES SULLIVAN DIES OF A STROKE; Former Educator of This City and State Historian Succumbs at Home in Albany. HAD A BRILLIANT CAREER Ex-Principal of Boys High in Brooklyn--Later Official in StateEducation Department.. timesmachine.nytimes.com.