Wadleigh High School for Girls explained

Wadleigh High School for Girls
Address:	215 West 114th Street
Zipcode:	10026
Coordinates:	40.8028°N -73.9542°W
Other Name:	The Wadleigh School
Schooltype:	Public
Established:	1897
Gender:	Girls

The Wadleigh High School for Girls was established by the NYC Board of Education in 1897 and moved into its new building in Harlem in September 1902. It was the first public high school for girls in New York City.^[1] At the time, public secondary education for girls was considered highly novel and perhaps a bit scandalous. Newspapers considered it newsworthy enough to devote many stories to describing classroom scenes of girls receiving “higher” education.^[2] The building is now shared among several schools including the Wadleigh Secondary School for the Performing and Visual Arts, the Frederick Douglass Academy II, and Success Academy Harlem West.

Namesake

The school was named for Lydia Fowler Wadleigh (1817–1888), who was a pioneer in higher education for women. In 1856 she established the 12th Street Advanced School for Girls in the face of “bitter opposition,” according to The New York Times in 1904.^[3] Later in her career, she assisted Thomas Hunter in the creation and was the first “Lady Superintendent” of the New York Normal College, now known as Hunter College.^[4]

Building

Located at 215 West 114th Street, the building was constructed during 1901–02 and opened for the 1902–03 school year. The total cost for the land, building, and equipment was $900,000. At the time of its construction, it was praised by The New York Times as “the finest high school building in the world.”^[5]

Five stories tall, the building had such wonders of the times as electric elevators and central forced-air ventilation. The architect of the school was C. B. J. Snyder, who, as Superintendent of School Buildings for New York City, was responsible for the design of most of the New York City public schools of the time, including such notable buildings as DeWitt Clinton High School and Erasmus Hall High School. The brick-and-limestone school, done in a French Renaissance style, featured an imposing tower, stained-glass windows, and a series of terra-cotta bas-relief shields with patriotic American motifs.^[6] In 1993 a renovation, costing $47 million, was completed.^[7] The following year, Wadleigh was designated a New York City Landmark.^[8]

Social history

Although 85% of the population in New York City at the time of its opening were either immigrants or children of immigrants, from its beginnings Wadleigh took pride in turning its students into “gentlewomen” who could assume their rightful place as contributors to American society.The nature of that contribution was subject to the temper of the times. In 1910, Mrs. O. H. P. Belmont (see Alva Belmont), a wealthy socialite, offered $100 in prizes to the girls of Wadleigh who could write the best essays on the subject of woman’s suffrage. The New York City Board of Education decided not to allow the contest to proceed with a view towards stopping the spread of woman suffrage propaganda in the public schools.^[9] Later, in 1937, Dr. Harold G. Campbell, Superintendent of Schools, assured a gathering in celebration of the school’s 40th anniversary that “we at the Board of Education will do our best to keep Wadleigh as a school for ladies.”^[10]

Neighborhood and subsequent history of the school

When the Wadleigh High School for Girls opened in 1902, the Harlem neighborhood in upper Manhattan where Wadleigh was located was a fashionable middle and upper class, mostly white and Jewish, area. Over the subsequent decades, Harlem became a center of black life in New York City, but it also became a more economically disadvantaged area as well. In 1937, Dr. John L. Tildsey, retired Associate Superintendent of Schools, was quoted in the New York Times as saying that the students at Wadleigh "have to pass through a neighborhood where gentlewomen do not like to pass." He further urged parents to "bring pressure on the Board of Education and the Board of Estimate for a new site on the upper West Side where they can send their girls in confidence and security." At the end of the 1953-54 school year, Wadleigh was closed.^[11] It reopened in 1956 after some renovation as a co-educational junior high school. In 1993, after a complete renovation, Wadleigh became a co-educational secondary school. In the early decades of the 21st century, the building was shared among several distinct schools. These include the Wadleigh Secondary School for the Performing and Visual Arts, the Frederick Douglass Academy II, and Success Academy Harlem West.^{[12] [13]}

Alumnae

Alumnae include:

• Evelina Lopez Antonetty (1922–1984), civil rights activist^[14]
• Vinnette Justine Carroll (1922–2002), playwright, actress, and theatre director^[15]
• Alice Childress (1916–1994), novelist, playwright, and actress^[16]
• Lady Bird Cleveland (1926–2015), artist
• Constance Dowling (1920–1969), actress^[17]
• Virginia Brown Faire (1904–1980), actress^[18]
• Yetta Dorothea Geffen (1891–1986), actress, journalist, musician, theatrical manager
• Wynne Gibson (1898–1987), actress^[19]
• Aurora Greely (1905–1983), dancer and choreographer^[20]
• Edith Gregor Halpert (1900–1970), American art dealer and collector^[21]
• Lillian Hellman (1905–1984), playwright^[22]
• Jane Margueretta Hoey (1892–1968), social worker^[23]
• Rosella Kanarik (1909–2014), American mathematics professor and educator
• Dorothea Lange (1895–1965), photojournalist^[24]
• Dr. Margaret Morgan Lawrence (1914–2019), the first Black female psychoanalyst and psychiatrist^[25]
• Dina Melicov (1905–1969), sculptor
• Dora Cole Norman (1888–1939), educator, dancer, theater producer, playwright and sportswoman^[26]
• Molly Parnis (1899–1992), fashion designer^[27]
• Bernice Robinson (1914–1994), civil rights activist
• Anna Rosenberg (1899–1983), civil servant^[28]
• Isabel Sanford (1917–2004), actress
• Carmen Velma Shepperd (1910–1997)^[29]
• Eulalie Spence (1894–1981), playwright and teacher^[30]
• Jean Stapleton (1923–2013), actress
• Gitel Steed (1914–1977), anthropologist/photographer
• Olivia P. Stokes (1916–2002), religious educator, ordained Baptist minister, author, administrator, and civil rights activist^[31]
• Arlein Ford Straw (1920–2009), class of 1936, composer
• Wezlynn Tildon (1918–1993), class of 1936, radio actress^[32]
• Gene Weltfish (1902–1980), class of 1919, anthropologist and historian^[33]

See also

• List of New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan
• National Register of Historic Places listings in New York County, New York

Notes and References

1. Kennedy, Randy, “NEIGHBORHOOD REPORT: Upper West Side; Old School: Famous, Infamous and Now a Landmark”, New York Times, July 31, 1994.
2. “Wadleigh to Mark 40th Anniversary”, New York Times, December 5, 1937.
3. "Honor Teachers Memory", New York Times, February 7, 1904.
4. Web site: Lydia F. Wadleigh . rootsweb.ancestry.com . July 5, 2012 . November 2, 2012 . https://web.archive.org/web/20121102200810/http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nhcsutto/lydia.html . live .
5. “Modern Ideas Followed in Building New High School”, New York Times, March 1, 1903.
6. Kennedy, Shawn G., “Landmarks: Now, It’s Harlem’s Turn”, New York Times, May 12, 1991.
7. Gray, Christopher, “Streetscapes/Wadleigh Secondary School; Renovating a 1902 Novelty”, New York Times, September 19, 1993.
8. Web site: Wadleigh High School for Girls/(now) Wadleigh School . July 26, 1994 . Landmarks Preservation Commission . July 5, 2012 . February 11, 2012 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120211110832/http://www.neighborhoodpreservationcenter.org/db/bb_files/Wadleigh-High-School-For-Girls.pdf . live .
9. “MRS. FISH GONE OVER TO THE SUFFRAGISTS; Society Leader Who Last Year Inveighed Against the Cause Converted by Mrs. Belmont”, New York Times, January 16, 1910.
10. “Wadleigh Presses New School Plea”, New York Times, December 12, 1937.
11. "Wadleigh School Faces New Status", New York Times, June 16, 1953.
12. Web site: Wadleigh Secondary School for the Performing & Visual Arts - District 3 - InsideSchools . insideschools.org . June 30, 2015 . July 25, 2015 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150725033645/http://insideschools.org/component/schools/school/152 . live .
13. News: The Chancellor Saved a Failing Harlem School, but Can It Be Fixed? . Sharon . Otterman . The New York Times . July 6, 2018 . January 15, 2019 . August 7, 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180807033445/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/06/nyregion/wadleigh-harlem-carranza-school.html . live .
14. Web site: Wadleigh Secondary School for the Performing & Visual Arts . 2024-04-07 . www.wadleigharts.org.
15. Web site: Boyd . Herb . 2018-04-19 . Vinnette Carroll, first Black woman director on Broadway . 2024-04-07 . New York Amsterdam News . en-US.
16. Biography Today: Author Series. Detroit: Omnigraphics, Inc. 1996. p. 18. .
17. News: Johnson . Erskine . July 3, 1943 . Screen Chats . Shamokin News-Dispatch . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20160507230226/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/5002867/shamokin_newsdispatch/ . May 7, 2016 . April 13, 2016 . Pennsylvania, Shamokin . 5 . . Shamokin News-Dispatch.
18. Katchmer, George A. (2002). A Biographical Dictionary of Silent Film Western Actors and Actresses. McFarland. p. 110. . Retrieved 12 November 2016.
19. Aaker, Everett (2013). George Raft: The Films. McFarland. p. 31. . Retrieved 8 November 2016.
20. Book: Howard Dodson . The Black New Yorkers . 2000 . John Wiley . Internet Archive . 978-0-471-29714-7.
21. Book: Pollock, Lindsay . The girl with the gallery: Edith Gregor Halpert and the making of the modern art market . 2006 . Public Affairs . 978-1-58648-302-9 . 1st . New York . ocm70668720.
22. News: July 1, 1984 . LILLIAN HELLMAN, PLAYWRIGHT, AUTHOR AND REBEL, DIES AT 79 . The New York Times . 1.
23. June Hopkins. "Hoey, Jane Margueretta"; http://www.anb.org/articles/15/15-00336.html ; American National Biography Online Feb. 2000. Access date: Mon Oct 16 2017 15:51:59 GMT-0400 (EDT)
24. Acker, Kerry "Dorothea Lange", Infobase Publishing, 2004
25. Web site: Flayton . Leigh . 2019-02-20 . Dr. Margaret Lawrence, a Pioneer in Children's Mental Health Research . 2024-04-07 . NewYork-Presbyterian . en-US.
26. Web site: January 13, 2016 . Wednesday Open Thread: Early African American Basketball II .
27. News: July 19, 1992 . Mollie Parnis, Designer, Dies in Her 90's . The New York Times.
28. Web site: Anna Rosenberg . 2024-04-07 . Jewish Women's Archive . en.
29. "Miss Sheppard, Contralto, to Sing April 20". The Chicago Defender. April 15, 1933. p. 17 – via ProQuest.
30. Prentiss, Craig R. New Territory. New York, USA: NYU Press, 2013, pp. 39–72, doi:10.18574/nyu/9780814707951.003.0003.
31. Web site: Olivia Pearl Stokes . 2024-04-07 . Biola University . en-us.
32. News: 1936-07-04 . Graduated . 2024-02-15 . The New York Age . 4 . Newspapers.com.
33. Theory and Practice: Essays presented to Gene Weltfish, edited by Stanley Diamond. The Hague, The Netherlands, Mouton Publishers, 1980