The Dwight School, formerly the Franklin School: 18-20 West 89th Street

by Tom Miller

In 1888 developer William H. Stafford broke ground for four four-story-and basement rowhouses at 17 through 23 West 88th Street.  Designed by Henry Davidson, they would not be completed for four years.  Davidson melded two disparate styles–Queen Anne and Romanesque Revival—then added Flemish Renaissance Revival gables to the end houses.  The mirror-image center houses cleverly shared a second-floor bay over which was an arched pediment filled with elaborate carvings.

William and Ella Sugden purchased No. 17 West 88th Street.  The couple had a young adult daughter, Mollie.  Next door lived George W. Tooker and his wife, the former Anna Mary Taylor.  Tooker listed his profession as “express manager.”  He was, as well, a Sunday school teacher.

The City Record said he was “complaining of disorderly boys.”

Tooker’s weekly mentoring of children did not temper his curmudgeonly attitude towards neighborhood youths.  On March 27, 1902, Mayor Seth Low forwarded a letter he received from Tooker to the Police Department.  The City Record said he was “complaining of disorderly boys.”

Anna Tooker, who was born in 1834, was described by The Musical Courier as “an amateur composer of considerable merit.”  She was especially known socially for her annual New Year’s Day receptions.

On June 9, 1905, George Tooker “entered into the realms of light,” as poetically worded in The New York Times.  His funeral was held in the parlor two days later.  Tooker’s obituary noted, “His former Sunday school pupils [are] invited.”  Anna M. Tooker retained possession of 19 West 73rd Street until 1915.

In the meantime, the Sugdens had moved out in 1899.  An ad in the New York Journal and Advertiser on October 16 announced the auction of Ella Sugden’s “magnificent furnishings, together with her collection of oil paintings.”  The house was sold, and its new owner leased it for two decades to well-heeled tenants like Dr. Bernard Sour and his family and civil engineer Robert James Phillips.  Then, somewhat surprisingly, in September 1921, Mollie J. Sudgen purchased her family’s former home for $40,000 (about $681,000 in 2024).  She did not move in, however, but continued to lease it.

The preparatory school had been founded in 1872 by Julius Sachs, and was known at the time as The Sachs School.

In 1963, the Franklin School purchased and demolished 19 West 88th Street (creating an awkward half-bay at its former fraternal sibling).  The preparatory school had been founded in 1872 by Julius Sachs, and was known at the time as The Sachs School.  The Franklin School hired architects Wechsler & Schimenti to design a four-story school building on the site.  Their Modernist design, which anticipates Brutalism, could not have contrasted more starkly with the heavily decorated 1892 houses.  Five years later, the school called the firm back to design a three-story extension on the front of 17 West 88th Street.  The architects (almost) seamlessly melded it with the earlier structure.  Somewhat surprisingly, the upper portion of the Sugden house peers out, unaltered, from above the new section.

In 1993, the Franklin School merged with the Dwight School.  The institution has several campuses across the city.  This location houses The Lower School, for grades 1 through 5.

Tom Miller is a social historian and blogger at daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com