Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis High School (New York City, New York)

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5-story Romanesque-revival school completed in 1893. Designed by C. B. J. Snyder, it opened as Public School 67. During World War II, it was used by the U.S. Maritime Commission, and then became the High School of Performing Arts, on which the 1980 film Fame was based.

The school is clad in tan-orange brick with masonry trim above a rough-faced and rusticated brownstone ground floor. It is symmetrically massed, with a projecting central 3-bay pavilion taking the form of a tower rising one story above the roof line, and a smaller projecting pavilion at either end.

The central projecting pavilion incorporating the main entrance contains a large Romanesque arch, flanked by two column rising to support a balustrade above it. Within each spandrel of the arch is a roundel with a high relief portrait bust. The architrave frieze displays a curving floral motif, characteristic of the style. The entrance arch is flanked by single-windows. The 2nd & 3rd floors of the central pavilion consist of three double-story bays of paired windows, square-headed at the 2nd floor and round-arched at the 3rd. Recessed spandrels between the floors separate the windows. Round-arched drip moldings above the 3rd-floor windows rest on carved corbels, again a typical Romanesque motif.

A string-course sets off the 4th floor, comprised of three pairs of round-arched windows with carved stone corbels and a continuous round-arched drip molding. From the string course at both edges of the central pavilion rise large columns supported, beneath the string-course, by carved brownstone grotesque figures. The 5th floor of the central pavilion consists of five square-headed windows separated by small paired columns with Romanesque capitals; the floor is topped by a shallow dentilled cornice, which wraps around the tops of the large columns extended from the 4th floor; these columns terminate in carved brownstone tops. The pavilion is crowned with a mansard roof with a central dormer; the dormer contains a 9-paned bulls-eye window under a round arch supported on pilasters, which is topped by a pediment with a Romanesque-style frieze.

The recessed sections flanking the central pavilion contain secondary entrances flanked by square-headed windows with iron grilles at the ground-floor level; this level continues the rustication of the base of the central pavilion. The door and windows in each section are enframed with brownstone piers. The 2nd & 3rd floors contain six square-headed windows in each section, three on each floor, grouped as a double-story within a brownstone rectangular surround. The windows are separated by Corinthian pilasters; the spandrel separating the two floors is formed by a long rectangular panel with a brownstone floral frieze and a carved head in the center. At the 4th floor of each section are three square-headed, 6-over-6 windows separated by Corinthian columns and set within a brownstone surround. At the roof line are dormers similar to that above the central pavilion, but with square-headed, 4-over-4 windows.

The ground floor elevations of the end pavilions are similar to those of the recessed sections, but with secondary entrances twice as wide. Above, in each pavilion are two pairs of square-headed, 6-over-6 windows at the 2nd floor, and two pairs of round-arched, 6-over-6 windows set within single arches at the 3rd floor. The arches are outlined by drip moldings with Romanesque-style brownstone corbels. The spandrels above the paired round-arched windows are adorned with a leafy frieze. At the 4th floor of each pavilion are four narrow round-arched windows set beneath a drip molding with corbels. Roof dormers are similar to those of the recessed sections, but wider, with paired square-headed, 4-over-4 windows.

In winter 1988, the vacant building caught fire during renovation. Its exterior and several walls survived; the interior needed complete reconstruction to a new design by Jack L. Gordon Architects. Performing Arts High School moved to LaGuardia High School, and the 46th Street building reopened in 1995 as the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis High School.

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