Public School 7

Public School 7 earned a reputation as the intellectual center of a largely industrial waterfront neighborhood during the late nineteenth century. Its original building was constructed in eighteen-seventy-one to serve the children of the many laborers working in the nearby warehouses and sugar refineries. The school board commissioned the architect Samuel Buchenberger to design a structure that projected stability and permanence in an area defined by transient industrial activity. He utilized the ornate Second Empire style, complete with a distinctive mansard roof, which stood in stark contrast to the utilitarian brick factories surrounding the schoolhouse.