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Don’t miss reading about the Alumni Room 216 and its New Wooden Floor.

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As you walk into the alumni room 216, you will notice a new bulletin board built around the room. Archivist Steven Fertik and Assistant Archivist William Newman worked during the summer of 2011 to put up the bulletin board, which has a painted wooden frame, on the right and left sides of the room. The bulletin board is divided into three parts with photographs covering the history of “47” from 1908 to present. The first section shows P.S. 47 in the 1865 school building, where it stayed until 1925, and then the 1926 23rd St. and 24th Street school buildings. There are also photographs of classrooms, the playground, the gym and many more. The second section shows more photographs of the classrooms, assembly shows, school bus, children, gym, nature room, cafeteria, and playground. The third section shows photographs of cooking, sewing, printing, woodworking, metal shop and art classes.

In the back room by the window, photographs show basketball players from different years at school.

On the right side are two classroom desks that were used during the 1908’s. What makes the desks so interesting is that there is a can filled with coal on the desk. It was used to generate heat during the winter. The school had a coal window where the coal men put a chute and dumped the coal into a coal bin—a special room full of coal. Every morning, the janitor would shove the coal into the furnace to generate heat for the whole school. This was done until the 1970’s.

The preserved wooden floor and the door are original to the school.

Appreciation

Appreciation goes to archivist Steven Fertik ’69, assistant archivist William Newman ’59, Joel Goldfarb ’59, Rolf Olsen ’59, Betty Kasher ’65, Sara Sue Penn ’61 and Dorothy Cohler ’57 for their help with the alumni room. Appreciation also goes to those who made donations toward the Archivist Fund and the General Fund. Without their donations, we would not have been able to renovate our room. Their names are on: page 11 in “47” Alumni newsletter issue #40, page 9 in “47” Alumni newsletter issue #41, and page 12 in “47” Alumni newsletter issue #42.

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Page last updated: August 21, 2016