BFS ARTI-FACTS
STEPPING INTO BFS HISTORY By Brett Topel
Director of Communications and Marketing
Ever since I started working at Brooklyn Friends School—11 whole months ago—I have been fascinated by the school’s history. I have spent hours looking through old photos, in the archive room going through boxes and boxes of items, listening to stories from alums. However, I am a very hands-on person and love to think of yesterday and today at the same time, using the same lens. Several months back, I had the opportunity to tour the Brooklyn Meeting House and see where all of the original classrooms had been. Still, it was not until June that I was able to gain access to the building adjacent to the Meeting House, which was once a brownstone. That version of the school housed the expanded BFS from 1914–1972. Currently, the former BFS is home to Brooklyn Frontiers High School, an alternative school run by the New York City DOE. Thanks to Neil Pergament, the Vice Principal of Brooklyn Frontiers, we were able to gain access to take some photos and tour the old building. I am not exactly sure what I was expecting to find inside, especially since the building has been open and used by the Department of Education for one school or another since BFS moved out in 1972. The nostalgic part of me was hoping there would still be remnants of BFS in some way, shape, or form. Would there be an old plaque on the wall that the DOE didn’t bother to take down? Or perhaps the curtains in the windows of the library would be the same? Was Head of School Stuart Smith’s desk left untouched, waiting to be re-discovered a half century later? Well, no such luck. There were, however, some really interesting parts of the building that were as interesting as I had hoped they would be.
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