Demolition of the Original Free Academy Building, 1928
City College moved from its original building on 23rd Street to the present
St. Nicholas Heights campus in 1907. Considered unsafe and lacking modern utilities,
the 23rd Street building was virtually abandoned at this time. In 1917, the
building was partly renovated to house the new CCNY School of Business and Civic
Administration. The school moved out of the Free Academy and into temporary
quarters in 1926, and the eighty-year-old Gothic style building was demolished
in February 1928. Construction of the current sixteen-story building on the
corner of 23rd Street and Lexington Avenue began in December 1928. The first
classes were held in the new building in September 1929 although it was not
completed until 1930.
