Tuesday, July 15, 2014

P.S. 17 Hamilton Park - Burned and Gone


PS 17, a fairly standard looking school once stood on the heights overlooking York and Jersey Streets. The bit of woods visible in the right of the picture, behind the school, represent the edge of The Cedars, businessman Shipley Jones' estate.

The school burned down in 1977 and Parks began the process of acquiring the land from the Board of Education in order to build what's now called Skyline Park. It's a great place and every time our nephews visit we try to get there at least once.


1874 Map - a school existed on the site but it's footprint differs from the photo/post card, implying it was a different, older facility.


1917 Map - That's the building in the pictures. The entrance faced Fairview Avenue (now Harvard). I wish there was a photo from a further away location so there'd be a sense of how the school sat on the land.



The streets today - Here's a shot up the little piece of Arnold off York. The school was on the rise to the right.





3 comments:

fedsped said...

Does anyone know more about PS 17 in its days as the home of the Richmond Occupational Training Center from 1967 til it burned down? The OTC is now The Hungerford School ( P 721R) and I am looking for recollections from people who worked there, or were students or parents of students there. We at Hungerford are compiling information about our school I its earlier days . Anyone who wants can email me at Fedsped "at" gmail.com. Thank you, Kathleen Boyer

The Wasp said...

I don't. I didn't even know it had been the R OTC. If I come across anything I'll let you know.

RAM said...

My father and his siblings went to PS 17 back in the day (1920's). They were living on Winter Ave., so they had to go down one steep hill and up another to get to the school.