P.S. 135

The building standing at nine hundred thirty-one First Avenue, often called Public School one hundred thirty-five, occupies the historic site of Mount Pleasant. This was once a sprawling eighteenth-century estate owned by James Beekman. During the American Revolutionary War, British forces seized the mansion and used the property as a military command post. It was on these very grounds that the patriot spy Nathan Hale was reportedly held and sentenced to death before his execution in seventeen seventy-six. When the current school structure was built in eighteen ninety-two, it was designed in the Romanesque Revival style by architect George W. Debevoise. The buff-colored brick and brownstone exterior was intended to provide a dignified, sun-filled environment for over thirteen hundred students. As the local population grew, the city even purchased the adjacent lot in nineteen hundred two to construct a major addition to the building. The school served the community for decades, but by the late nineteen seventies, the Board of Education decided to sell the property. A developer purchased the site with the intention of tearing it down, but a coalition of neighborhood groups fought to block the demolition. Their efforts led to the building being listed on the National Register of Historic Places in nineteen eighty. The city eventually mandated that the original facade be preserved as a condition for any future development. Today, the structure exists as a unique example of adaptive reuse. A twenty-one-story luxury condominium tower, known as The Beekman Regent, was constructed inside the shell of the old school in the year two thousand. While the interior now functions as private housing, the historic Romanesque base remains visible from the street, keeping a physical link to the neighborhood's nineteenth-century educational history.