The Wadleigh High School for Girls was established by the NYC Board of Education in 1897 and moved into its new building in Harlem in September 1902.

Newspapers considered it newsworthy enough to devote many stories to describing classroom scenes of girls receiving “higher” education.

The brick-and-limestone school, done in a French Renaissance style, featured an imposing tower, stained-glass windows, and a series of terra-cotta bas-relief shields with patriotic American motifs.

The New York City Board of Education decided not to allow the contest to proceed with a view towards stopping the spread of woman suffrage propaganda in the public schools.

Over the subsequent decades, Harlem became a center of black life in New York City, but it also became a more economically disadvantaged area as well.