Serving the historic community of Tompkinsville in Staten Island, Public School 15 was built in 1897-98 as the Middletown Township District School No. 1, on the same site at the corner of Grant Street and St. Paul’s Avenue on which a public school has stood since 1855.
The school was designed by Edward A. Sargent, a Staten Island resident and one of its most notable architects at the end of the nineteenth century. Faced in rough-textured burnt red brick with terra-cotta and stone bandcourses and trim, Public School 15 is distinguished by an intricate surround of brick and terra cotta at the main entrance facing St. Paul’s Avenue, chamfered pavilions on the front and sides, and Queen Anne style windows.