East New York Vocational High School

Opened on April 26, 1941 ENY Vocational was originally housed at 2416 Atlantic Avenue, which is considered outside of East New York today. Built for $1,450,000, the opening was delayed several months as the school was competing with the war effort for shop supplies. The school sits on land formerly used by the Brooklyn Water Works when they added additional pumping stations in the 1880s.

There was also a girls division dating back to the 1930s, which used spare space in P.S. 173 and P.S. 155 until the formation of Maxwell Vocational High School in 1950

Now known as the East New York Transit Technology High School.


Click on thumbnails to enlarge

This is a closeup of the original school location at 2416 Atlantic Avenue, which is west of Van Sinderen Avenue. The original name was the East New York Continuation School, but also known as "The Worker's High School of Brooklyn. It opened May 15, 1922 with 2 students. The student population quickly grew to 1,900. Thanks to Anthony Messina for finding the early history.
Jeane Icolari sent this 1941 image of her Uncle Vinny and several classmates, including Thomas Koch. Given the new school opened in April of 1941, this is probably the old building.
Empty shop, March 5, 1941
This news story ran in March on 1941, showing the empty shops caused by war priorities.
East New York Vocational High School
Located on Wells St., Vincent Luongo sent me the update shot back in 2005. The shot on the left dates from 1943.
ENY Vocational, 1946.
A Brooklyn Eagle article about boatbuilding in the school program. I also discovered the school provided a lot of training for wartime production .
East New York Vocational High School, 1950s
Eloise Wendell sends in a shot of her friend Carolyn Cronin sitting on the steps of the school. The view is from the corner of Hill and Euclid.

On the right, Phil Santella sends in a picture of his graduation day in front of ENY Vocational in 1953.
East New York Vocational High School, Aviation Class 1953
Phil Santella also sends over this more formal shot of the Aviation Class of 1953.
East New York Vocational High School, 1953
Ronnie Amerise also graduated in 1953; he sent in this pic of him and his mother in front of the school.
"Crossroads", 1959 Yearbook
Vito Messina provided some scans from the 1959 yearbook.
"Crossroads", 1959 Yearbook
The Machine Shop class, and a candid with Vito in the middle image.
"Crossroads", 1961 Yearbook
Some pix from the 1961 yearbook pictured at the top.
"Crossroads", 1961 Yearbook
Second set from the 1961 yearbook pictured at the top.
ENY Vocational, 1963
Robert Ingardia not only sends over the 1963 graduation picture of the "Mechanical Tech" class, but an 'update' shot as well!Pictured: Robert Ingardia Anthony Augugliaro, Joe Buono, Dan Bivona, Reggie D'Onofrio, Joey Marasia, Marty Johnson, Anthony Variale, Paul Kateridge,Floyd Berry,Ted Lewis,Alan Hahn, Louie Pierno
Crossroads Yearbook, 1963
I actually found the yearbook for this class. On the right, a sample page- their yearbooks had a lot more pictures than the typical high school yearbook of the time.
Crossroads Yearbook, 1963
I cropped these pictures from the yearbook showing the atheletic field and some of the surrounding neighborhood. On the right that's the pumping station in the background.
Crossroads Yearbook, 1963
The yearbook even contained some odd local photos, including this shot of a house on Hegemann and the Old Mill.
Crossroads Yearbook, 1976
Someone was selling this on Ebay, though I didn't grab this one..