Written by: Justin Hessler
Growing up in Long Island NY is definitely something I feel very thankful for. As a child I never valued the amazing geographics of Long Island. Garden City is my hometown. The streets are lined up with trees and perfect manicured lawns. Cover sacks to freely have kids ride bikes or play in the streets. Garden City is conveniently located within a 25 min drive to the beaches and a minute drive into one of the best cities in the world, Manhattan NYC.
Garden City is located in Nassau County Long Island, it has a population of a little over 20,000 (based on Census of 2020). The Village of Garden City was founded by an Irish millionaire named Alexander Steward, who had a vision of building a community of homes, family and charity in 1869. Since then, the town has held many of its core family and united community beliefs and traditions alive. With time things have evolved with minor changes in the community, but the overall core of community, charity and homelife are still a staple of the town village.
One of the most iconic locations in Garden City is St Pauls School. It is a beautiful building architecturally build with characteristics of victorian gothic, european style and large garden fields that surround the school to make it a total of 48 acres of land. It is located right off the main street that runs through the entire town called Steward Ave for all to see, you can't miss it. St Pauls was originally an all-boys military school that was built in 1871, it took four years to complete. Alexander Stewards wife Cornelia Steward was the founder of this and many of the most iconic buildings that are still preserved in the town of Garden City until today. St Pauls school was operating until it shut down in 1991. At this time the Village of Garden City obtained the building. Today the fields are being used by the town sports and schools, however. the building continues to be closed as the Village trustees have not been able to reach a consensus agreement on what to do with the main building since its closure.
For decades now the town has held board of Trustees meetings to discuss the future outcome of St Paul's but can't seem to come to an agreement. There are several plans presented by different members that have to be passed by the board and also by the citizens of the village of Garden City who will be passed on these expenses as village charges in their annual taxes. This has complicated the decision making and has prolonged any final building approvals for St Paul's. As a result of the years of not being able to agree on a resolution, St Paul's has suffered extensive damage in the building as it was not maintained. Some of the larger problems came to the building when the roof and windows were not properly maintained, leading to water and debris to come into the building interior rooms. This caused major damage and many ceilings in the classrooms have caved in and floors have decayed to be weak and frail. Water damage has led to mold and destruction of the core foundations well as critters getting inside and nesting in the interior main building.
With this said the main building has been closed up and gated for no entrance. The side buildings that were more recently built in the 1990s were the athletic gyms, these have been preserved and are currently being used by the town recreation department for local children athletic and play activities. The surrounding fields are also well kept and the outdoor child park and restrooms. The community rallies here for athletic events, town meetings, voting and even rents the spaces out to other towns.
Still the future of the main building of St Pauls stands to be determined as the town is torn between two or three plans that have been presented through the years. One plan was to tear down the original building and re-build a modern looking complex filled with new amenities for the community including athletic courts, ice skating rink , modern indoor community facilities and more. This plan was not welcomed by all , specially the citizens of the town that want to preserve the historic architectural look of Garden City. Another plan was to rebuild the school and make it the HS for the town , that plan also was not welcomed as the town already has a High school building with new grounds and does not need to be duplicated. Lastly the most popular plan is to maintain and restore the building with its original look and aesthetics. The town would use it as a community center for adults and children. Giving access to athletics, work rooms , town communitie rooms, gyms, classrooms and more.
In October of 2023 a town vote was encouraged to finalize the outcome of the building. The vote outcome was majority towards proposal #1 that read “Preservation on some Parts of the building or The entire building”.
Unfortunately this vote still is not enough for a decision to be made on the future of the building as many argue that this winning vote was won by a total of 2,635 out of 4,339 voters who attended , however the actual Garden City village voter community is of approximately 16,800 residents. This leads to the argument of some that the Town has made a very poor effort to clearly make the town voter residents understand the situation and get involved as this vote will directly impact their town taxes in the coming years. The trustees speculate that once a decision is passed and the tax on this project increases on each household then the residents will really complain and some will claim not to have been properly informed prior to the vote.
In the recent meetings there are talks of resident voting “mandate” being discussed.
We are yet to see what the outcome is for St Pauls. With the shift of old residents and new younger residents moving in, the future of St Pauls is uncertain.
Growing up here in Garden City, I can look back to amazing childhood memories on these fields of St Pauls. Attended thousands of soccer, lacrosse, baseball games, the annual Thanksgiving Turkey Trot Race, community gatherings and many more. For an outsider this may be a crazy long time to decide on the future of a building, but to most residents of Garden City this is not just another building but it's truly the heart of the community and many special memories for all.