{"nrhp_refnum":"83001724","name":"Fourteenth Ward Industrial School","other_names":["Astor Memorial School"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"256-258 Mott St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"New York","county":"Manhattan","state":"NY","lat":40.723618352000074,"lon":-73.99431339399996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1983-01-27","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A four-story brick school building at 256-258 Mott Street in Manhattan, designed in 1888 by Calvert Vaux of Vaux & Radford for the Children's Aid Society, across from Old St. Patrick's Cathedral.","why_significant":"It is described as a richly polychromatic and unusual example of the Queen Anne style by the noted architect Calvert Vaux. It is the best preserved of the surviving Children's Aid Society buildings, and its stepped gable is the only one to survive on such a building. It also reflects the society's social work among immigrant children, especially the local Italian community.","narrative":"Built in 1888 at 256-258 Mott Street, this four-story school across from Old St. Patrick's Cathedral was designed by Calvert Vaux of Vaux & Radford for the Children's Aid Society. Funds came from John Jacob Astor, given in memory of his wife, a longtime supporter of the society. The building is faced in common and pressed brick with sandstone trim and terra-cotta panels, and features a two-story oriel and a stepped gable inspired by a sixteenth-century house in Nuremberg. It replaced an earlier school on Crosby Street and was the society's first building planned only as a school, serving the neighborhood's Italian immigrant community as an industrial and night school until 1913. A later social-service organization used it as the Mulberry Community Center from 1918, offering clinics, English classes and meeting space. It is regarded as the best preserved surviving Children's Aid Society building. In 1972 the interior became cooperative apartments.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899","architect_builder":"Calvert Vaux of Vaux & Radford","architectural_style":"Queen Anne","criteria":[],"status_note":"Converted on the interior to cooperative apartments in 1972; condition listed as good and altered.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:42.479821-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/83001724.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83001724/bd45821474-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83001724/bd45821474-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"Americasroof","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:256-258-mott.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Americasroof</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:256-258-mott.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"10000012","name":"Chinatown and Little Italy Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/new-york/chinatown-and-little-italy-historic-district-10000012/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75319520","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourteenth_Ward_Industrial_School","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5475953"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/manhattan/fourteenth-ward-industrial-school-83001724/"}