From NY1:A multi million dollar renovation is taking place at Erasmus Hall High School -- but only on the main facility.
In the courtyard sits a landmark building, the original school built back in 1786 when Flatbush was its own town.
With a statue of Dutch scholar Desiderius Erasmus in front, the Colonial wooden structure was called the Erasmus Hall Academy. Alexander Hamilton, John Jay and Aaron Burr were among its founders. And now there's a campaign to make sure that history is preserved.
"There's a chance that we can lose it if something isn't done soon," said Terry Kaplan, Erasmus Hall Alumni Association.
The Erasmus Hall Alumni Association wants the city to put some construction dollars into the effort. The building is both a federal and city landmark and stands as one of the oldest schools in the country. But concerned alumni worry it may not be standing for long.
"The boards are falling off. They're rotting. The roof has a hole in it. And there's water leaking in. The glass is damaged. The shutters are falling off," said Kaplan.
8 comments:
Thought it was an article about Bowne House.
BTW, that lawsuit 15 years ago was a failed effort to stop the people that are running it now from taking over.
In classic Queens fashion, the good guys lost.
Now loook at it.
Where's HDC, QHS, MAS and the rest of those alphabet soup "preservationists" on both Erasmus and the Bowne House h-m-m-m?
Remember it was Tommy Huang's cousin Councilman John Liu who helped broker the deal for NYC to take over (the the birthplace of religious freedom in America) that venerable Bowne structure!
I like how the Jacob Titus Bowne collection walked away and a certain professa got a tax write off.
The threat of exposing that is enough to overturn the board and pass the carcass over to the city.
Any idea what will be left of the collection after it is sitting in storage FOR YEARS!!!
About the same amount is will be found of St Savriours when they finally get around to emptying the trailers after the termites have had a decade or so to go at it.
Why in the hell is Bowne House working on a visitors center when the house itself is in disrepair and closed?
What is the point if they move the house to another location?
Since many famous people are Erasmus Hall alumni, I hope that some of them can cough up a few bucks so that others have the same opportunities that they had.
In the mid-80's I taught at Erasmus Hall and received permission to hold one of my English classes in the old school building. We met daily in the large room on the Church Avenue side of that building. We benefited from the atmosphere of that wonderful building. Shortly thereafter it was turned into an ill-fated "museum" and was locked up to keep students out. Shane on NYC to deprive our city's bright youth from being connected with this important school.
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