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PS 6

public school in Manhattan, New York City, United States

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 6, 2026
Entity authorityQ7117078
Source-derived summary

PS 6, The Lillie D. Blake School, is a public elementary school located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York City. Founded in 1894, PS 6 is regarded as the top elementary school in New York City.

Overview

PS 6 has about 800 students in grades K-5. Average class sizes are 23-28. The school is popular with families on the Upper East Side who often choose to send their children there rather than to private school. The school's former Principal, Carmen Fariña, claimed that the acceptance rate for out of district students was 1/7, lower than that of many top-tier Universities.

History

PS 6 was founded in 1894 and named after the feminist author and reformer Lillie Devereux Blake (though the school has misspelled her name, with an added "a" in Devereux). The school was originally located several blocks to the north on 85th Street. The current red-brick building on Madison Avenue between 81st and 82nd Streets was constructed in 1953.

The school's first principal, Katherine Devereux Blake, the daughter of the school's namesake, served in that capacity for 34 years and demanded that the pacifist hymn I Didn't Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier be sung at every assembly.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “PS 6” as public school in Manhattan, New York City, United States. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around public, school and Manhattan.

Editorial reviewA strong orientation record where physical form, institutional use and historical geography need to be read together. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1894, 1953—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1894. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with public, school and Manhattan providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “PS 6”, the useful work is to connect “public school in Manhattan, New York City, United States” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7117078. VIAF identifies the subject as 3069152865734604940000. The Library of Congress control number is no2018075298. Authority coordinates are 40.778, -73.960. 3 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1894 and 1953.

Critical limits

Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “PS 6”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow PS 6 primary sources, PS 6 archive and public research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “PS 6”?
  2. What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
  3. Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from PS 6” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.