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.