Gatekeeper No More

1940, BFS Principal Douglas Grafflin's Address to the
Trustees of the Schools of New York Monthly Meeting 
proposing the enrollment of African American students at BFS. 
Please click to read Grafflin's entire address

This week, I'm unexpectedly switching gears thanks to a courageous conversation focused on the experiences of students of color in independent schools, a conversation that occurred at the BFS Alumni/ae Facebook group thanks to Bernard Dory '88, who shared the October, 2012 New York Times article, "Admitted, But Left Out." When it comes to our school's history, I wind up being a "gatekeeper," a word I despise and first reluctantly applied to myself in 2007 while attending an Undoing Racism workshop with other BFS employees. All institutions are imperfect and our school is no different. As it did in the past, our school tries, learns and grows today - such is the nature of Quakerism's continuing revelation. 

Our 2nd expansion,1888: Part 3 of Our Buildings, Our History

A front view of  NYMM's Schermerhorn properties ca. 1888,
showing the eastern side of the Brooklyn Meeting House

The second expansion of BFS occurred in 1888 with the purchase of the two vacant lots at 112 and 114 Schermerhorn, just east of the Brooklyn Meeting House, the open space seen in the photo used in the first article in this series on the creation of the Brooklyn Meeting House and Brooklyn Friends School. This 1888 expansion laid the ground for still later expansion and it occurred almost simultaneous to our first expansion with the one-story building in 1886. This 1888 expansion gives an example of how our school has always relied on people of real integrity who sometimes were Quakers and sometimes were not.

1867 to 1886 and Our First Expansion - Part 2 of Our Buildings, Our History

Look at the right of this ca. 1893 photo of the Germania Club to see the Brooklyn Meeting House at the far right. Look closely to see the snow on what seems to be the rooftop of our school's 1886 building  just east of the Meeting House.

In light of the great news of the most recent expansion of BFS, a new home for the Upper School, it's a good time to return to my series on the history of our school's buildings. My first entry in the series covered the first building to house BFS, the Brooklyn Meeting House, built in 1857 and extended to the school's first year, the 1867-1868 school year. Today, we take a look at the years 1868 to 1886 to understand our school's first physical expansion. The photo on the right shows what I believe is the 1886 building, the very first expansion of BFS.

The words of then-principal Susan P. Peckham to the Trustees of the Schools of New York Monthly Meeting: "Our enlarged and improved accommodations are a source of much gratification to the teachers and scholars and I believe they will prove of the greatest importance as a means of making the school more healthy, more orderly and more prosperous. The scholars certainly appear happy, industrious and well-behaved; the manner in which they have begun the work of the year is most satisfactory."

Why was a new building necessary? The school's early years were successful and Brooklyn was growing. The school needed more space for students and more space would help our excellent educational program both keep and grow with the changing times - much the same as our reasons for expanding today.

The first BFS buildings, and our first neighbors

Original photo from the 1923-24 BFS School Catalogue

My earlier post on the first architect of BFS, William Bunker Tubby, sparked so much research that I've decided to write of the physical expansion of BFS over several posts. Today is an overview of the very first home of Brooklyn Friends School, 110 Schermerhorn, with some details about the area and our early neighbors.

Miss Woodward, innovator at BFS and beyond from 1900 to 1951

Examining the history of Brooklyn Friends School means also examining the history of education in Brooklyn and New York City. Brooklyn Friends School has a long history of educational innovations, but it also has a long history of allowing innovative educators to implement their ideas at BFS.

E. Frances Woodward
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 1951,
accessible courtesy of fultonhistory.com

Ella Frances Woodward exemplifies our long-standing commitment to educational innovation and to supporting innovative teachers.