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Herman Riddle Junior High School, Boston Road, Crotona Park

Summary

Herman Ridder Junior High School, Public School 98, the Bronx, was the first thoroughly "modernistic" Art Deco style public school building in New York City and the first junior high school to depart in design from a modification of a standard elementary school plan. Designed by the Board of Education's Bureau of Design and Construction, headed by Walter C. Martin as Superintendent of School Buildings, and built in 1929-31, the school was one of the first projects to result from a program initiated in 1927 to erect facilities designed specifically for junior high programs, which prior to this time had been housed in elementary school buildings. The striking design of Herman Ridder Junior High School is representative of the initial phase of American academic modernism in which the Art Deco style influenced both plan-generated massing and modernistic ornamentation of school designs.

Several Art Deco elements characteristic of contemporary commercial and industrial buildings were employed in the design, including an entrance tower modeled as a set-back skyscraper, structural emphasis in the pier and window treatment of the classroom facades, and a lively roof line with cresting and pedimented parapets, as well as Art Deco style ornament.

The school is "identified" by an extensive iconographic program of academic symbols and exceptional modernistic sculptural figures on the tower. Named for the prominent publisher and philanthropist, Herman Ridder Junior High School exemplifies the union of modernistic trends in architecture and progressive educational ideals, resulting in a civic monument symbolizing hope and achievement.

The Development of the Morrisania Section of the Bronx
The Herman Ridder Junior High School is located in the Morrisania section of the Bronx at the southeastern edge of Crotona Park, an area, like the rest of the Bronx, which remained essentially rural until the turn of the century.

Morrisania, named for the British Army officer Colonel Lewis Morris who owned land in the area in the Revolutionary War era, was first settled by two groups of immigrants in the mid-nineteenth century; a group of Irish who worked on the construction of the Harlem and Hudson River Railroads settled in the area in the early 1840s, soon followed by a large number of German immigrants. The German-American population of the area continued to grow, and by the late-nineteenth century, Morrisania had become predominantly German.

The urbanization of the Bronx followed annexation to the City of New York in 1874 and the subsequent improvement of transportation between the Bronx and Manhattan. The expansion of elevated train lines, particularly the completion of the IRT subway system to West Farms Square just north of Morrisania in 1904, prompted real estate speculation and development, and, ultimately, increases in population in the Morrisania section, and the Bronx as a whole.

During the 1920s there was a tremendous housing boom in the Bronx accompanied by a corresponding increase in population; only the Depression slowed the explosive growth of the borough. The 1930 census documented the 72.8 percent increase in population during the previous decade, and revealed the Crotona Park area to be the geographical center of population in the Bronx. Mirroring this growth, the number of school-age children in the borough increased by 44 percent between 1918 and 1928. During the 1920s thirty-nine elementary and junior high schools and four high schools were erected in the Bronx, as well as additions to nineteen existing buildings.

A Model Junior High School for the Bronx

The construction of the Herman Ridder Junior High School documents the commitment of the New York City Board of Education to expanding the system of junior high schools in the late 1920s. The junior high school concept had developed in New York City in tandem with the movement in the rest of the United States to better address the educational needs of young teenagers in preparation for their high school years or entrance into the workforce. Junior high schools, known as intermediate schools prior to 1922, were established in New York City during the 1910s, including three in the Bronx; these were begun as experimental departments in elementary school buildings. The number of junior high programs in New York City increased considerably around 1920 as the idea became accepted.

As the 1920s progressed, it became clear to educators that junior high schools should be located in separate, specially-designed school buildings. The standard three curricula — academic, commercial, and industrial — and the athletic and music programs required specialized classrooms and equipment. In 1927 the New York City Board of Education initiated a junior

high school construction program to provide these facilities.

The first group of junior high schools to be erected included Public S

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