Friends Seminary in Autumn with Halloween decorations. Stuyvesant Square, New York City.

I am still coping with my injured leg (it’s been almost a month now). The healing process is very slow and I had a few more x-rays taken last week to determine how my healing was going. Thankfully, the results were positive but I was told I am only half way through the healing process and that I need 8 weeks of physical therapy to get my range of motion back in my left leg. The actual injury ended up being a mild tibial plateau fracture which people are usually advised to keep off of for at least 6 weeks. However, it wasn’t caught on the initial x-rays and since my doctor thought it was a torn knee ligament, he advised me to walk around. He was in shock that I wasn’t in excruciating pain and that my leg bones are in place. We were both thankful that I seem to have great bones! However, it’s been hard to not be as active as I usually am. I have to budget my time each week since going out and walking around for even an hour is exhausting since my leg doesn’t move properly (due to scar tissue which is going to be worked out in physical therapy). I am just thankful that it didn’t end up being worse!

Due to my current physical status, I have had a lot of time to go through last year’s photos that I took around autumn and Halloween. It’s always great to re-visit work periodically (and re-edit said work). This photo was taken around that time. It’s of one of my favorite older buildings in this area of Manhattan. The building is called the Friends Seminary and it has a really interesting history:

“Friends Seminary, established by members of the Religious Society of Friends (members are known as Quakers), was founded in 1786 as Friends’ Institute through a $10,000 bequest of Robert Murray (merchant). Friends’ Institute was located on Pearl Street in Manhattan and strived to provide Quaker children with a “guarded education.” In 1826, the school was moved to a larger campus on Elizabeth Street. Tuition in that year was $10 or less per annum, except for the oldest students, whose families paid $20. The school again moved in 1860 to its current location and changed its name to Friends Seminary.

In 1878, Friends Seminary was one of the earliest of schools to establish a Kindergarten. In 1925, it was the first private co-educational school to hire a full-time psychologist. Friends has long had a very strong reputation for being a diverse and philosophically open school, and traditionally has had Quakers as heads of school. In recent years the school has increased its endowment to the level of other New York City independent schools such as The Dalton School and The Brearley School and engaged in an ambitious and controversial renovation of its buildings. The school is one of New York City’s most sought-after private schools.” Source

As someone who attended (and survived) New York City public schools for my pre-college education, I have always been fascinated by the various private schools in Manhattan. It’s a completely foreign world to me, one that I assume others find just as intriguing (for various reasons) judging by the success of shows like Gossip Girl.

Growing up, I used to read stories about these types of schools (including boarding schools). They were my own version of fairy tales in some ways and buildings like this one were exactly how I pictured the various fictional private schools in my mind.

by nythroughthelens