Designated June 24, 2003
Erasmus Hall High School, originally called Erasmus Hall Academy, a private institution of higher learning founded in 1786 by Dutch settlers in Flatbush, was the first secondary school chartered by the New York Regents. The clapboard-sided, Federal style building, constructed in 1787 on land donated by the Flatbush Dutch Reformed Church (designated a New York City Landmark in 1966), continued in use and was donated to the public school system in 1896.
At the turn of the twentieth century, Brooklyn experienced a rapidly growing population, and the original small school was enlarged with the addition of several wings and the purchase of several nearby buildings. In 1904, the Board of Education began a new building campaign to house the burgeoning student population. Superintendent of School Buildings, C.B.J. Snyder designed a series of buildings to be constructed as needed, around an open quadrangle, while continuing to use the old building in the center of the courtyard. Erasmus Hall, designed in the Collegiate Gothic style that Snyder used on many of his buildings, was constructed in four sections, in 1905-06, 1909-11, 1924-25, and 1939-40, with the two later buildings supervised by William Gompert and Eric Kebbon, respectively.
*Excerpt from the Landmarks Preservation Commission designation report
STATUS Designated Individual Landmark
The Neighborhood
Flatbush
Flatbush is a neighborhood in Brooklyn. It was founded by Dutch colonists in 1651. Flatbush was originally chartered as the Dutch Nieuw Nederland colony town of Midwout (or Midwoud or Medwoud) — from the Dutch words, med, "middle" and woud, "wood"— in 1651. Both names...
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