Like Baruch College 150 years later, City College was faced with limited space that could not keep pace with a growing student body and the need for new facilities. In addition to classrooms and the central chapel, the small Free Academy building contained a chemistry lab, library, faculty rooms and offices. CCNY outgrew the building and in 1870 constructed the Annex on 22nd Street to provide additional classrooms and make room for an extensive natural history collection. A bridge connecting the original building to the Annex was known as the “Bridge of Sighs.” In 1883, a chemistry and physics laboratory was constructed in an adjacent building on 23rd Street.
By the 1890s, City College had clearly outgrown its 23rd Street building and planning began for construction of a new campus. In the meantime, the school rented commercial space in the vicinity. In 1899, two floors of the Metropolitan Life Insurance building were rented. After two years, this space was insufficient and the College abandoned MetLife to lease the Cass Building, a commercial loft building on 23rd Street between Second and Third Avenues that is presently the location of the School of Visual Arts.
CCNY’s significantly larger campus was constructed in the St. Nicholas Heights area of upper Manhattan from 1903 to 1907. The first classes were held on the new campus in September 1907. Considered unsafe and lacking modern utilities, the original Free Academy building was virtually abandoned at this time.
