By the mid-1970s, deteriorating building conditions had caused this former Harlem elementary school to shut its doors to students. Designed by C.B.J. Snyder, the prolific architect for dozens of New York public schools at the turn of the 20th century, the five-story Renaissance Revival edifice (1903) continued to decay after its abandonment: trees had taken root inside, growing out through windows, rotting floor boards, and the roof, and the exterior’s crumbling classical cornice had been removed. When the Boys & Girls Club of Harlem (BGCHarlem) bought the property in 1986, it planned to demolish the structure and build a new mixed-use facility.