Walton High School at Reservoir Avenue and West 195th Street in the Bronx,
April 2014. Built in 1931-32, which was prior to the federal New Deal but
during the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration as New York State Governor,
during which he created massive work relief programs as an answer to the
Great Depression. Among the work-relief projects was the
Hunter College campus directly adjacent to
Walton; it's hard to imagine that they were totally separate and unrelated.
In any case we are counting public works built by relief workers in New York
State during FDR's administration as New Deal sites; until evidence is
uncovered to prove the presence or absence or relief labor in its construction,
Walton High School is a candidate. Anyway, it's in good company with
Hunter/Lehman campus on one side and
P.S. 86
(a verified federal New Deal project) on the other.
By the way, Walton High School was built from the same blueprints as
Bayside, Abraham Lincoln, John Adams, Andrew Jackson, and Grover Cleveland
high schools; Bayside and Andrew Jackson are Federal New Deal constructions.
Famous Walton alumnae include Penny Marshall, Bella Abzug, and Shari Lewis.
Walton was closed in 2008; the building now houses a bunch of charter and/or
mini-schools: Discovery High School; Kingsbridge International; Celia Cruz
High School for Music; International School of Liberal Arts; and the High
School for Teaching and the Professions.
Photo: Frank da Cruz.
References
- Bronx
Realty Men Expect Good Year
New York Times, 23 Dec 1932. Mentions Walton High School among many
other Bronx sites as "public works".
- Bronx
School Dedicated - Walton High School for Girls is Formally Presented at Ceremony,
New York Times, 23 Dec 1932.
- Walton
High School plans closing gala, NY Daily News, 14 Mar 2008.