Located at 1715 N. 37th Street, George Birnbach, architect, built in 1903, closed in 2005.

The sale of this building is on hold while the city and state decide its fate. The school was replaced by Bethune Academy, a new public school building, just around the corner. I was drawn to 37th Street School by its two-story arches and its odd soft blue color. To me it is the most tragic of the schools I’ve painted, because it was abandoned as out-of-date and replaced with a brand new school. As I painted it, I imagined fissures in the earth opening up and swallowing it whole, leaving behind no trace. Even though its exterior is not as grand in materials or detail as that of its peers, there is a harmony to its symmetrical proportions. A solid school for a once solid working class neighborhood.