28 MAY 16, 2019 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
The growth of a great Glendale school
BY THE OLD TIMER
EDITORIAL@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
The original Public School 68
in Glendale was a wooden
building constructed on
farmland acquired on Oct. 9, 1891 from
Margaretha Rathjen, widow of John
Henry Rathjen.
The Rathjen farm consisted
originally of 20.639 acres with
18.126 acres on the east side of
Cypress Avenue and 2.513 acres on
the west side. The majority of the
farm was bounded by what today
are Summerfield Street on the north,
Cypress Avenue on the west, Forest
Avenue on the east and 79th Avenue
on the south.
After John Henry Rathjen died,
his widow and children decided to
sub-divide the farm. The Board of
Education Union Free School District
9 of Newtown Township purchased
one square block of land from the
Rathjen family for $3,000. The school
site was bounded by the Long Island
Rail Road Bay Ridge branch on the
north, Bergen Avenue (now St. Felix
Avenue) on the south, Henry Street
(now Seneca Avenue) on the west
and John Street (now 60th Place on
the east.
A two-story wooden school
building with 12 classrooms was
built on the site and opened in 1892.
it was designated “School #9,” with
This 1908 photo shows the newly-constructed P.S. 68 in Glendale in the foreground, with the former schoolhouse
at left. Photo courtesy of NYC Municipal Archives, reprinted with permission
the number taken from the School
District. When it opened, the old
four-room school house on the
north side of Cooper Avenue east of
Cypress Avenue was closed, and the
building sold.
Union Free School District #9
covered a large area extending from
the boundary line between Kings
and Queens County, east to Trotting
Course Lane (now Woodhaven
Boulevard) and from East New York
north to Metropolitan Avenue.
When School #9 opened in the
fall of 1892, William Dumond was
named principal. He was 28 years
old and had been teaching for six
years. He was assigned a staff of six
A 1908 print of the former P.S. 68 schoolhouse, which was once School #9 in the old Union Free School District 9
Photo courtesy of NYC Municipal Archives, reprinted with permission
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