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Townsend Harris Hall Prep School

Townsend Harris Hall, later Townsend Harris High School, was a public preparatory school located in Manhattan in New York City that was linked to the City College of New York and that existed from 1906 to 1942 and, in an earlier form, went back to 1849. An elite, all-boys school, it was intended for students who were strong intellectually and who were willing to undertake a strenuous program of studies. One of the school's hallmarks was that it allowed strong students to graduate in three years rather than the usual four. It was one of the earlier selective schools in the country, although the tradition of select exam schools in American cities went back to the colonial-era founding of the Boston Latin School. The alumni of Townsend Harris Hall would be filled with high achievers in a variety of fields – a few of whom include the medical researcher Jonas Salk, the novelist Herman Wouk, the lyricist Ira Gershwin, and the economist Kenneth Arrow – and the school gained a national reputation.

History
Sub-Freshman era The school was named for Townsend Harris who, besides his many diplomatic accomplishments, had helped found the Free Academy of the City of New York, At this time, the school was referred to as the Sub-Freshman Class, and its purpose was to bring students of differing educational backgrounds to be sufficiently prepared to attend the Free Academy. It was housed within the James Renwick Jr.-designed Free Academy building on East 23rd Street, in the East Side Manhattan neighborhood of Kips Bay. Not all Sub-Freshman students went on to the academy, however, as some were simply seeking to be more equipped to enter the workforce. which had in turn been pushed by the educator Nicholas Murray Butler's desire to see standardized secondary education. The school's introductory year evolved into a fully-qualified program during the early- to mid-1900s, during which time the school became referred to as the Academic Department. However, the athletic teams from the school were called C.C.N.Y. Prep. The transition of the school program's length took place over several years, The school's demographic composition would change with the large-scale immigration from Eastern Europe and elsewhere around the turn of the century. Students were typically immigrants themselves, or the children of immigrants. Townsend Harris Hall era City College moved to a new campus built in Hamilton Heights overlooking Harlem in Upper Manhattan, a move completed in 1907. to a new building called Townsend Harris Hall, which had been given that name to honor City College's founder. At the same time, Townsend Harris Hall was also adopted as the name of the school, including in interscholastic sports. There it initially occupied the ninth and tenth floors of the City College School of Business, in a new sixteen-story structure that had opened the year before. As such it was one of the few, and perhaps only, high school in New York City without its own building. Later the eleventh and twelfth floors would be used as well. The full, official name on the diplomas given to graduating students was: Townsend Harris High School, the Preparatory High School of the College of the City of New York. ==Enrollment==
Enrollment
As a public school, there was no tuition for parents to pay Students came from the Lower East Side, Those who graduated from Townsend Harris were guaranteed a place at City College. Admission to City College was quite competitive Overall, some three-quarters of Townsend Harris graduates went on to attend City College, By 1941, the school had 1,200 students at it. ==Academics==
Academics
The school admitted students by an entrance examination, which was known to be difficult. with the Bronx High School of Science appearing as well late in Townsend Harris's existence. Townsend Harris condensed four years of high school into three. The workload on the students was intense, but the students took pride in how much time they spent on homework and studying. Some of the teachers at Townsend Harris were professors at City College.