Public School 39

Public School 39 has stood on the corner of Sixth Avenue and Eighth Street in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn since 1876. The three-story red brick building with stone trim combines Italianate and French Second Empire architectural styles. The school was named in honor of Henry Bristow in 1916 as part of an effort to name schools after city leaders. P.S. 39 was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. The school is part of the New York City Department of Education and has an enrollment of about 400 in grades Kindergarten through Fifth.

A school was organized in the Gowanus area of Brooklyn (which includes Park Slope) by 1790. This school became Public School 2. The land for Public School 39 (P.S. 39) was purchased in March 1876 from George Riggs. Public School 39 first opened to students in 1877 under the leadership of principal Harriet N. Morris with about 300 students. By the following school term, enrollment grew to over 800. The school was designed to hold no more than 1,087 students.

The school building is symmetrical with the main entrance facing Sixth Avenue below an archway in a central tower with a rusticated stone base. A panel between two windows in the tower reads "Public School 39." The central tower once had a mansard roof, but it was removed in the 1940s. The rest of the building's roof is a slate mansard roof with iron cresting. Projections at the center on both long sides of the building contain stairwells. Inside, each floor of the building is divided into two by a central hallway and stairwell. It is thought that P.S. 39 was designed by Samuel B. Leonard, the Board of Education's Superintendent of Buildings. The school is very similar in design to P.S. 37 which had been recently built.

Henry Bristow, the school's namesake, had a varied career in public service. He was born in the Azores Islands in June 1840 and came to the U.S. in 1851. Bristow was a member of the New York National Guard and fought in the Civil War as part of the Seventh Regiment. When an early school serving the Gowanus/ Park Slope area (Public School 2) became overcrowded in the early 1870s, Bristow allowed some of the students to attend a temporary school (Primary School 2) held in his house until a larger school building became available, when P.S. 39 was built. In the 1880s he was part of Brooklyn's Board of Education and in 1897 he was appointed Police Justice. Bristow became a member of the U.S. Congress in 1900 as a Republican. He died in Brooklyn in October 1906 after a month's illness.

P.S. 39 was recently ranked number 20 among New York elementary schools by U.S. News and World Report, with a score of 99.14 out of 100. Over 85% of the school's students scored at or above the proficient level for math, and over 90% for reading. The student to teacher ratio is about 17:1.

Anonymous. "Bristow, Civil War Veteran, Dead." The Cohoes Republican (Cohoes) January 12th 1906, 1-1.

Brunetto, Daniel P. NRHP Nomination of Public School 39, Brooklyn, N.Y.. National Register. Washington, DC. National Park Service, 1979.

Public School 39. History, About PS 39. Accessed December 11th 2021. https://www.ps39.org/about-ps-39.html.

NYC Dept. of Education. P.S. 039 Henry Bristow, Find a School. January 1st 2021. Accessed December 11th 2021. https://www.schools.nyc.gov/schools/K039.

U.S. News and World Report. Ps 39 Henry Bristow, Best Elementary Schools Rankings. January 1st 2021. Accessed December 15th 2021. https://www.usnews.com/education/k12/new-york/ps-39-henry-bristow-246795.

U.S. Senate. A Biographical Congressional Directory with an Outline History of the National Congress, 1774-1911. Volume Doc. No. 654. 61st Congress, 2nd Session. Washington, DC. U.S. Government, 1913.