Film looks back at century-old institution

DeWitt Clinton High School, which opened at 60 W. 13th St. to 500 students and 23 faculty members in 1897, is the subject of a new documentary in the making. 

The school moved to the building that now houses John Jay College, on 10th Avenue between West 59th and West 58th streets, in 1906. It opened in the Bronx in its current location, at 100 W. Mosholu Parkway South, in 1929.

The official opening took place on Oct. 29 — the day the stock market crashed. 

At the opening, then-Mayor Jimmy Walker spoke about the school, which cost more than Yankee Stadium to build. 

“He’s justifying the expenditure of $3.5 million dollars and a few miles down on Wall Street people are starting to jump out windows,” said Gerard J. Pelisson, a former Clinton teacher who literally wrote the book on the school. 

What became the world’s largest high school in the 1930s inspired Mr. Pelisson’s 375-page The Castle on the Parkway. 

Mr. Pelisson and co-author James A. Garvey III are now producing a documentary.  

It will showcase Clinton’s rich history and will reference the school’s hundreds, if not thousands, of notable alumni, including writer James Baldwin, designer Ralph Lauren, hip-hip MC Kool Keith, actor Burt Lancaster, playwright Neil Simon and comedian Tracy Morgan.  

Above all, the documentary will pay tribute to the school and will highlight how Clinton, which was recently given an F by the Department of Education, was once a well-respected institution. The book takes the position that Clinton, and schools like it, has fallen victim to a Department of Education that seeks to close large high schools by using them as a “dumping ground” for troubled students, co-producer Mr. Pelisson said. 

 “It may be a castle on the parkway but it never had a mote around it,” he said, referencing the school’s lack of entrance exams. 

One of those directing the film, Danny Schechter, a journalist and filmmaker who has worked at CNN, ABC and CNBC, among other outlets, said Clinton’s intriguing story mirrors that of the Bronx.