Before state-centralized education became the presiding public model in the twentieth century, US education history was entwined with the common school movement. During the nineteenth century, the movement began with the ideal of a free-of-charge common schooling governed by locally elected school boards and ended with a federated system assuming greater control over funding and educational standards.
As a precursor to the Common School Movement, the New York Free School Society formed in 1805 in the interest of providing free schooling to the whole children of New York City. The incorporation of this society set the stage for the NYC public school system to emerge as a historical model for free and democratic education in the United States.
Many of the NYC buildings that functioned originally as common schools in the eighteenth century are no longer recognized as such. Some are landmarked and preserved, while still others have been repurposed or are currently vacant. It's with this in mind that I have created a brief visual history of these common schools, mapping some of the prominent and groundbreaking sites of public education as they span the island of Manhattan.