Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School - Grammar School Building (New York City, New York)

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4-story school originally completed in 1905. The facade has largely been rebuilt from its original design. This building now houses just the Grammar School component, with the prep school, middle school, and other functions in other structures. Part of the grammar school is located in a series of five interconnecting brownstones on 94th Street just off Central Park. In addition to classrooms, the brownstones and the main building house two libraries, two art studios, a gymnasium, swimming pool, two music studios, a science lab, a computer lab, and the Grammar School cafeteria.

Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School is the oldest nonsectarian private school in the United States, founded in 1764 by what is now Columbia University in order to properly prepare incoming freshmen in the fields of English, Greek, and Latin grammar. By 1865, the school had grown substantially and was no longer connected to the university. The school was originally known as The Grammar School of King's College (King's College was the original name of Columbia University). The school changed its name concurrently with the university during the American Revolution to Columbia Grammar School, and added the word "preparatory" in 1969. In 1907, the school moved to its current location on 93rd Street, off Central Park West. It originally consisted of this one building, and expanded by adding five brownstones through the merger of the adjacent Leonard School for Girls in 1956. Construction on the newer prep school building began in 1984, followed by two more new buildings in 1997 and 2001. An administration building was added to the school in 2009.

The facade is faced in white-painted smooth-stucco above a ground floor of lightly-rusticated limestone with a low, brown granite water table. There is a central, recessed entrance with wood-and-glass double-doors. On the right is a long band of five windows; on the left is a similar band, except that the inner window is replaced by a wooden door. The ground floor is capped by a dentil course.

The upper floors have triple-windows in the center bay and 5-window outer bays, with black metal framing. Simple, 3-story surrounds of a blueish-white color, slightly cooler than the surrounding paint, frame each bay. A decorative opened book highlights the ends of the facade at the top floor. The facade is crowned by a dark-grey metal roof cornice with large modillions and small rosettes along the top edge, below which is a frieze of blueish-white on a white background, with horseback riders. The exposed east elevation is clad in brown brick with a few small window openings.