Constructed in 1895-97, Public School 27 is one of the earliest buildings produced by C.B.J. Snyder during his long career as Superintendent of School Buildings for the Board of Education of New York City. Snyder became Superintendent as huge waves of immigrant children were flooding New York schools, and shortly before consolidation of the city. Each of the city’s five boroughs needed many new school buildings, and Snyder was responsible for the design and construction of them all. At first Snyder continued many of the stylistic traditions of his predecessor, George W. Debevoise, as seen in the massive rectangular shapes of his early schools and his emphasis on a central entrance tower. In P.S. 27, as well as other of his schools from this period, Snyder used such design elements from New York’s Dutch and Federal periods as the stepped gables and polygonal tower. P.S. 27 represents Snyder’s successful effort to create a school building that would be an important and imposing neighborhood structure while meeting the requirements of the Board and the children who would use it.
