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| Former Garrison School (P. S. 31) in its glory days, before closing and abandoned in 1997. |
The former William Lloyd Garrison School (Public School 31), also known as the “Castle on the Concourse”, is scheduled to be taken down in order to make way for a new affordable housing complex, according to a report in Crain's New York Business.
Built in 1899, the school building was designed by famed New York City architect Charles Snyder and modeled it after the late Gothic-style Hotel de Cluny (now the National Museum of the Middle Ages) in Paris. It was the one of the few public school buildings in the city designed with a purpose of providing elementary school students a sense of collegiate education typically not available in the South Bronx.
P. S. 31 was declared a City Landmarked in 1986 and was closed in 1997 after it was deemed unfit to serve as a school.
For years there been talk of turning the 116 year-old school building into an annex of nearby Hostos Community College, an apartment building, or a community center. However, the years of decay and deterioration has taken its toll, and despite being landmarked, the city has deemed it unstable and a hazard to public safety.
In a letter addressed to the head of the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development dated March 31st, Bronx Borough President Rubén Díaz Jr., a former student at P. S. 31, called its imminent demise "a moment of great sadness for so many neighborhood residents."
UPDATE - May 28, 2015: Construction workers are in the process of demolishing the former school building on the Grand Concourse.
