Flatbush District No. 1 School, later Public School 90, before and after

What if they demolished a protected New York City landmark and nobody noticed? Well, that’s sort of what happened to Flatbush District No. 1 School, later Public School 90, at the corner of Church and Bedford Avenues in Flatbush (2274 Church Avenue (aka 2274-2286 Church Avenue; 2192-2210 Bedford Avenue, to be exact.)

The building, built in 1878 by John Y. Culyer and expanded in.1894, became a designated landmark in November, 2007. By that time the building was clearly in decay, and a few years later it would be demolished.

At the time of designation, the NYCLPC praised the school:

Flatbush District No. 1 School dates from 1878 and is one of a handful of significant buildings recalling Flatbush’s days as an independent “country town”; that it stands near Flatbush’s historic center, was one of the town’s few masonry structures at the time of its construction, and is an important link to the years in which Flatbush was transformed from an agricultural village into a major suburb; that during this period, the town expressed its independence and growing strength through the construction of this building, along with Flatbush Town Hall; that as the direct descendant of the original, seventeenth-century Flatbush school, which was the earliest school on Long Island, this building is a major contributor to Flatbush’s long and rich educational history; that the District No. 1 School was seen as “a model” and “an ornament to our town” and a source of “just congratulation and pride” by its builders; that it was described, soon after its opening, as a “commodious brick edifice, which is not surpassed by any school of its size in the county for architectural beauty, healthy location, and sanitary arrangements”..

However, no new tenant could be found for the city-owned building, and like its distant cousin in the Bronx, Public School 31 in the Grand Concourse, its structure became unsound. Flatbush District No. 1 School, later Public School 90’s demolition was approved in late 2015. All you see now is a vacant lot. But, in Orwellian fashion, the building (as well as its Bronx cousin) still appears in the list of protected landmarks. And its outline is still present in the official city map and the Landmarks Preservation Commission map.

The two before pictures below were taken in 2010 and 2011, respectively. The after picture was taken in September 3rd, 2018.

This is taken from Bedford Avenue, just north of Erasmus High School, looking northwest.

This second photo was taken from Church Avenue, looking southwest.