Bowery Boogie | A Lower East Side Chronicle

Renovations Underway for P.S. 42

Posted: November 2, 2009 at 6:33 am

A year-long renovation project is underway at P.S. 42, also known as Benjamin Altman School.  The behemoth elementary school building  situated at 71 Hester Street (between Orchard and Ludlow), will benefit from improvements including floor replacement, interior renovations, and electrical systems upgrades.  Schedule completion date is October 2010.

The school’s namesake was born and raised on the Lower East Side.  His parents, Jewish immigrants from Bavaria, opened a small retail store on Attorney Street. In 1865, the twenty-something Altman founded B. Altman & Company at the corner of Third Avenue and Tenth Street.  It would later become one of the first successful department stores to open branches outside New York City.  After his death in 1913, the Altman Foundation seized control of the assets (he had no heirs), but eventually sold the stores to an investment group which included the Gucci family.  The last branch closed in 1989.

Altman was also an avid art collector, having amassed a modest trove of Rembrandt paintings and fine china.  These possessions were donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art after his death.