Our School Is His Monument: A History of the John Jay Building

Our School Is His Monument: A History of the John Jay Building

Daniel Cohen, Staff Reporter

The interesting history of the John Jay building is largely unbeknownst by most of the hundreds of students that spend 6+ hours in it everyday. If one enters the school building from the main entrance, there is an inscription on the right wall of the vestibule. It reads, “CHARLES D. LARKINS / PRINCIPAL — 1894 TO 1917 / OUR SCHOOL IS HIS MONUMENT / IT BEGAN IN HIS HEART / AND GREW IN HIS GUIDANCE / LET IT BE A LIVING MEMORIAL TO HIS LIFE’S DEVOTION.”

On the left wall from the entrance in the same room, there is a seal from the New York City Department of Education for a school called “Manual Training High School.” Indeed, John Jay campus originally housed a completely different school than what the sign above the front door would lead one to believe.

According to the John Jay High School Campus Library’s official website, Manual Training High School opened in 1894, with Charles D. Larkins as the principal. The first class consisted of 125 boys taught by a mere 5 teachers. In its second year, 1895, the incoming freshmen were all girls. In 1900, the school won the Girl’s Basketball Championship: its first athletic victory.

In December 1905, Mr. Larkins wrote a comprehensive review of the school’s facilities. The text, published in Volume 13 of The School Review, contains some interesting tidbits on the state of the building before John Jay High School even existed. For example. the basement apparently contained “three laboratories not to be found in all high schools-a steam engine and dynamo laboratory, an electrical-testing laboratory, and an assay and analytical laboratory.” For those who are wondering, Merriam-Webster defines assay as “analysis (as of an ore or drug) to determine the presence, absence, or quantity of one or more components.” Other rooms included a “domestic science suite,” which contained kitchens and laundry rooms for the girls, a “science lecture-room” called Darwin Hall, and on the third floor there was apparently a “botany laboratory.” The auditorium seems to have been significantly downgraded since the text was written. It used to have a balcony stretching from the rear of the auditorium to both sides, ending near the stage. When combined with the seats, the 1905 auditorium could hold 1,350 people.

Going back to the library’s website, “Manual Training High School became became John Jay High School in 1959.” In 2004, John Jay High School was closed down and split into three schools: the Secondary School for Journalism, the Secondary School for Law, and the Secondary School for Research, and a suspension site was also added.

This was largely due to to John Jay High School’s status as “a school of last resort for students from all over Brooklyn who were on the verge of dropping out or who were considered to be discipline problems and could not or did not get into the magnet high schools in the borough,” according to Lynette Holloway, writing for The New York Times.

The auditorium now.
The auditorium now.
The auditorium in December 1905. Note the balconies overhanging some of the seats, and the skylight in the ceiling.
The auditorium in December 1905. Note the balconies overhanging some of the seats, and the skylight in the ceiling.

When Millennium Brooklyn High School opened in 2011, the Secondary School for Research was renamed Park Slope Collegiate.

When asked about how the building has changed in the course of his career, the head custodian, Sylvester “Syl” Joyner, said that the main difference has been upgrades to the building. He claims that these upgrades are “just a lot of work that people don’t see.”

Kiara Jones-Ford, a freshman, says “I like the building very much. It feels like a normal school building while still having a historical feel to it.”

When asked what his favorite thing about the building is, journalism teacher Benjamin Bullington named, “the sculpture above the entryway at the front of the building. It depicts John Jay in this ornate Gothic manner, but it’s at the same time stained, partially black, and obviously old. So at the same time it illustrates the history and the purpose of the school building. I love staring at that.”

Mr. Bullington’s least favorite thing about the building is “how hot it is in the winter.”

When asked what his favorite thing about the building is, Ismail “Izzy” Roberts, a junior, responded “I like the [school] gyms.” His least favorite thing about the building is the bathrooms.