P.S. 186

There are schools with asbestos and schools with bad Regent scores, and then there’s P.S. 186, where half the auditorium has been crushed by the caved-in ceiling and there are pigeon corpses and trees in nearly every classroom. Here, the concern is not the graduation rate, but the multi-story collapse in the east wing and the squatters in the basement. This school is far beyond failing DOE standards: its literal foundation is crumbling underneath its crumbling structure. 

Built by acclaimed chief architect for New York City schools C. B. J. Snyder, Public School 186 opened in 1903 as a Harlem elementary school. 100,000 square feet and shaped like an H, the building (which was originally inspired by the Hôtel de Cluny in Paris) had reached such a state of disrepair by the 1970s that officials could only speculate on what would kill the students first in case of fire, as quoted in the New York Times: “Children would suffocate to death before being burned to death or before they got a chance to leap to their death. In any case, they would die.” Indeed, the school’s long corridors, poor security, and general neglect led to incidents of parents being robbed by hoodlums off the street and teachers’ aides being raped at gunpoint. In 1975, the 72-year-old school was finally closed down after it was discovered that the fire alarm system had been cut.

Update February 2018: As of 2016, the building was completely renovated to include affordable housing and a new Boys and Girls Club of Harlem, preserving the exterior and many of the interior elements of the original structure. It is possible to view the exterior of the building from the street, but entry is only permitted for residents  and their guests or for Boys and Girls Club visitors.