Free Academy, 1912
Constructed from 1847 to 1848, the Free Academy was designed in the Gothic style
favored for academic buildings by James Renwick, who would go on to design St.
Patrick’s Cathedral. The four-story building was constructed primarily of brick
covered with brown stucco to resemble stone. It included eighteen classrooms
and a main assembly hall referred to as the “chapel.” The campus consisted of
a small yard, separated from 23rd Street and Lexington Avenue by an iron fence,
and an alley between the school and adjacent buildings on 22nd Street.
