York Prep School

 school, Neo-Gothic (architecture), interesting place, 1949_construction

4-story Neo-Medieval (with Gothic elements) school completed in 1949 as a seminary, social hall, and clubhouse. Designed by Bloch & Hesse for The Free Synagogue, it opened as the Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute. This use continued until 1979, when the Institute moved to West 4th Street. This building then housed the Jewish Association for Services for the Aged until being sold to the York Prep School, moving here in 1997 from their previous location on East 85th Street. The school, which has 350 students in grades 6 through 12, has a gymnasium, a large library, an art center, science laboratories, music rooms, computer classrooms, and a media center. The school was founded in 1969 by Ronald and Jayme Stewart. The school, which then housed 250 students, made news in 1997 when it expanded in an unusual transaction, trading property with Ramaz School. Ramaz purchased this building on 68th Street for York Prep and it that for the existing school at East 85th Street.

The symmetrical, 5-bay facade is clad in rough-faced, rusticated grey stone with limestone trim. The main entrance in the center bay has a set of narrow wooden double-doors flanked by wider single doors, all approached by a low set of steps. These portals are encompasses below a broad pointed arch. The next bay to either side has a wide window opening of four panes set in a beveled limestone surround, keyed at the ends. The end bays at the ground floor have secondary entrances, with wooden double-doors set under pointed-arched like that in the center bay, but smaller. A limestone band course caps the ground floor, raised higher above the taller, central arch.

The stones of the upper floors are more varied in color than the uniform grey on the ground floor. The 2nd floor has triple-windows in each bay, with the pointed-arch upper panes separated by stone mullions, and the outer bays having drip moldings. The 3rd floor has smaller double-windows with rounded upper corners.

A projecting stone cornice with rosettes sets off the top floor, which has slightly-projecting stone surrounds at each bay, framing pointed-arch windows; the center bay is wider and has double-windows, and its stone surround extends higher than the others, all of which interrupt the stone band course across the roof line. There are also two narrow, pointed-arch slit windows flanking the center bay.