Grammar School No. 9 (Later Public School 9 / John Jasper School, Now Mickey Mantle School / Public School 811M)

History and architecture

Built in 1894-96 and opened in 1896, Grammar School No. 9 is the oldest known extant public school, as well as one of the few remaining nineteenth-century institutional buildings, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. This was an early design by C.B.J. Snyder, New York’s long-time Superintendent of School Buildings (1891-1923), who exerted a tremendous influence on the design and construction of the city’s schools during his tenure. Grammar School No. 9, one of eight public schools built between 1888 and 1899 on the burgeoning Upper West Side, was part of the vast school construction program launched to meet the needs of the city’s rapidly expanding population just prior to consolidation of Greater New York in 1898. It replaced a wooden school on the same site that may have been built as early as 1829, and which was demolished in 1890.

By the early 1890s, West End Avenue in the 70s and 80s had become quite fashionable for single-family row houses and town houses. Its architectural character was distinctive, with an unusual “Dutch” expression that took root following construction of two groups of houses in 1885-86 by architects Frederick B. White and McKim, Mead & White. The feature of stepped and curved gables was repeated by architects of many subsequent houses, as well as on the West End Collegiate Church (1892-93, Robert W.

Gibson) and Grammar School No. 9. In the 1910-20s, most of the buildings of this first period of development along West End Avenue were replaced by large-scale apartment buildings, additionally making Grammar School No. 9 a rare survivor. The five-story structure has two major facades, is clad in yellow ironspot Roman brick with grey limestone trim above a limestone base, features stoops on both sides (with a porch on West End Avenue) and a picturesque roofline composed of stepped gables, finial-topped dormers, and chimneys stacks.

The building is now the Mickey Mantle School (P.S. 811M) for special education needs. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.