ATTIC FLOOR

The friary church in Claregalway is shaped like a cross. The nave and the chancel are like the upright beam of the cross, while the transepts form the arms of the cross. The transepts run north and south from the point where the chancel joins the nave, and the tower marks this point. However, the Claregalway church does not have a south transept. The church is basically rectangular shaped and like most churches of the period was built facing due east, with the altar on the eastern end. The total internal length of the structure is 142 feet. The original church was built in the early pointed style of the thirteenth century. The tower, the east gable window and the north transept were added in the fifteenth century.
The chancel refers to that part of the church, near the altar, which was reserved for the clergy and choir and is on the eastern end. It is 52 feet long and 23 feet wide. There are six tall narrow pointed (Gothic style) windows in both the north and south walls that provide light; each window is 2 feet in width and 11 feet in height.
Also there were originally three pointed windows in the east gable, but these were replaced by the present one in the fifteenth century that reflected the elaborate ornate style of that time. This east window is the crowning glory of the church. Mullions or vertical stone shafts divide the window into five lights or sections with very gracefully proportioned patterns in the upper part of the window.
On the south wall of the chancel are the remains of a piscina, which is a stone basin in which the chalice used in the Eucharist is rinsed, and the sedilla, a group of three seats let into the wall for the clergy performing the service. The De Burgo tomb, with the arms and crest of the De Burgos, stands in the north side wall, the position in which the founder or other great benefactor’s tomb is generally placed. It carries the following Latin inscription:
Husc Incum sibi elegit Dus Tho Burgo de Anbally, Fils Richarde de Derrymaelaghni Anno Domini 1648

In translation: “Thomas de Burgo of Anbally, son of Richard of Derrymacloughney chose this place for himself, 1648 AD.”
The nave is the main part of the church; it is on the western end and was where the congregation and laity sat. It is 72 feet long and 23 feet wide. The word nave comes from the Latin word nave, meaning a ship, for the ship was thought to be the symbol or sign of the Christian church, which carries believers over the sea of life into the safe harbour of heaven. Almost the entire western gable end is no more.
An old 1792 sketch of the Friary shows an elaborate window with four sections interlacing with round pieces over the heads. The people’s main entrance was by a large door in the western gable, of which the outline can just barely be seen. The western gable together with the door and window collapsed sometime in the 19th century. There are several sedillas on the south wall; the broken arch of one has been repaired with small red tiles.
There was a north aisle, with a width of 11 feet, which was separated from the nave by an arcade of four pointed arches on cylindrical pillars. The Romanesque style, rounded arch, connected the aisle with the north transept. Unfortunately this aisle is now demolished.
This measures 25 feet long by 16 feet. There is a doorway from under the tower into the transept chapel that would have been used by the clergy. However the public had access from the then north aisle of the nave through the arch. Its north window has three shafts with interlacing heads and the two windows to the east are richly carved like some of the window heads in St. Nicholas’ church in Galway. The chapel has an altar and altarpiece, and also a piscina near the door. The arch had been closed and the north window blocked, when the friars had earlier modified the transept to serve as a penal day chapel. Also it had been unroofed around 1915 by the Rev. PJ Moran. There is a tablet affixed to the wall of the chapel to the right of the entrance under the tower which carries the following Latin inscription:
Quisquis eris, qui transieris,
Sta, Perlege, plora,
Sum qd. eris, Fueramq. qd. es,
Pro me, Precor, Ora,
P.M.B. o.s.f.
In translation: “Whosoever you may be who should pass by, stop, read thoroughly, mourn. I am what you shall be and I was what you are. I entreat that you pray for me, F(ather) M(artin) B(lake). O(rder) (of) S(t). F(rancis)”. The plaque measures 28 inches by 7.5 inches is not dated and may mark Fr. Blake’s burial place.
The tower or belfry was built about 200 years after the original building and within the walls of the church. It rises in three stages above the roof, to a height of 80 feet from the ground level. The insertion of this prominent tower blocked up one of the clerestory windows of the nave and an adjoining window seems to have been taken out and a larger two section window put in its place, to compensate for the loss of light. It is built on arches or a groin type vault suppor

Public School 108, the Sal Abbraciamento School, Cypress Hills, Brooklyn

Public School 108, in the Cypress Hills section of Brooklyn, is an imposing Romanesque Revival style building designed by James W. Naughton in 1895. The building still functions as a public school and serves as a living reminder of the long history of public education in Kings County.

Cypress Hills was originally a village in the town of New Lots which, for 200 years prior to 1852, had been part of the larger township of Fiat-bush. Although a school had been established in Flatbush in the 1650s, it was not until 1740 that the population of the town had increased to the point that its eastern section, the "New Lots," could be separated into an independent school district.

A school house was erected near the present intersection of Schenck and New Lots Avenues and stood until 1810 when it was replaced by a larger building next to the New Lots Reformed Church. In 1847, a new second school district was established within New Lots consisting of all of East New York and Cypress Hills and a new school building for this district was built on Vermont Avenue near Fulton Street.

This district was in turn divided in 1856, creating a separate district for Cypress Hills. However, it was not until 1870 that a two-story high brick building was erected as the school for the district. This building still exists as the central section of the present Public School 65 on Richmond Street. Until then, the students had been required to use the basement of a nearby Methodist. 'Church.

Twenty-five years later, after Cypress Hills had been subsumed into the burgeoning City of Brooklyn, Public School 108 was built.

The architect, of Public School 108, James W. Naughton (1849-98), was bom in Ireland and brought to Brooklyn by his parents at the age of eight and educated in the public and private schools of the city. At the age of fifteen, Naughton went west, settling in Milwaukee where he worked as an apprentice in the architectural office of J. & A. Douglas. In 1859, having completed his apprenticeship, he entered the University of Wisconsin at Madison to study architecture. After two years, he returned to Brooklyn and continued studying architecture at the Cooper Union in Manhattan.

He was active in Brooklyn politics, and,for two years between 1874 and 1876, he served as Superintendent of Buildings for the City of Brooklyn. In 1379, he succeeded Samuel B. Leonard as the Superintendent of Buildings for the Board of Education of the City of Brooklyn and held that position for nearly twenty years until Iris death in 1898. All the school buildings built in Brooklyn during the twenty years prior to the Incorporation of Greater New York in 1898 were designed by Naughton.

Public School 108, an imposing Romanesque Revival structure built of brick and Lake Superior sandstone, rises above a rough-faced stone basement for three stories and is crowned by an attic fourth floor pierced by dormer windows. An interesting feature of the school is its plan. The building is symmetrically arranged into three parts: three-bay wide end pavilions connected by recessed wings to the seven-bay wide central entrance section.

The division of the school into prominent pavilions is usually associated with the Second Empire style, a style that faded in popularity 25 years before the school was built. The plan was probably retained by Naughton for esthetic reasons. The use of pavilions adds greatly to the character of a design, creating verticality, plactisity, and a dynamic play of light and shadow.

The ground floor of the pavilions and central portion are enhanced by quoins and a stone cornice runs above the first floor, visually joining the three main sections and giving a strong horizontal accent to the facade.

The windows of the first and second floor are square-headed with the exception of two windows immediately above the entrance and at the second floor on the side facade of the south pavilion.

The third floor windows are arched: those that pierce the recessed connecting wings are shallow, segmental arched, while those in the central and end pavilions are round-arched with ornamental imposts and molded archivolts.

The modillioned roof cornice is broken by the dormer windows in the end pavilions and by the gabled dormers in the central section and at the side facades of the end pavilions. The dormers, high paneled chimney and hipped roofs also create a picturesque skyline, adding to the distinctive character of the building.

Of the many handsome school buildings which proudly stood in Brooklyn's 19th-century neighborhoods, Public School 108 is one of the few that survives and continues to serve the purpose for which it was originally built. The school is a living link with the area's past and a symbol of concerh for education first shown by the Dutch and continued through the centuries by the people of Brooklyn.

- From the 1981 NYCLPC Landmark Desi