Campus Magnet H.S.
Description
The presently multi-campus Campus Magnet High School(s) was constructed as Andrew Jackson High School during the 1930s. The federal Public Works Administration (PWA) provided more than $1,000,000 in financial assistance to enable the project to move forward. The PWA Docket number was NY 8024-R.
The exterior of the school consisted of brick and limestone. “Most of the doors and windows are wood, and the Main Entrance doors are bronze,” a PWA report said. “The building has three stories and a basement. The plan is a combination H and E in shape. Its frame is built of steel with reinforced concrete arches. It contains also an Auditorium, two Gymnasia, a General Work Shop and a Printing Shop.”
The school, which originally accommodated 3,696 students, eased pressure on high schools in Jamaica and Richmond Hill in a rapidly developing part of what was then suburban Queens.
The PWA provided $250,000 in loans and a $1,137,681 ($1,387,681 in total financial assistance) to New York City for the project’s construction. Total project costs were $2,136,200. Construction began in October 1935 and was completed May 10, 1937. The building’s cornerstone (located at its southeast corner) reads 1936.
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Campus Magnet H.S. cornerstone
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Campus Magnet H.S. entrance
Source notes
Record Group 135: Public Works Administration; Projects Control Division; Entry 52: Indices to Non-Federal Projects; Report No. 5: Status of All Completed Non-Federal Allotted Projects, page 157.
National Archives Record Group 135-SAR:
Prints: Photographs rejected for use in the Photographic Report to the President: “Survey of the Architecture of Completed Projects of the PWA, 1939”; Box 14: New York State; Folder 1: Schools.
Project originally submitted by Evan Kalish on August 8, 2014.
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