Cathedral Preparatory Seminary, Queens Branch

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Address: 92nd Street and 57th Avenue
Neighborhood: Elmhurst
Architect:  Beatty and Berlenbach
Year: 1964
Current Status: Extant
Award:  Bronze Plaque for Schools and Colleges
Typology:  School or College

Cathedral Prep expanded into Queens from Brooklyn, previously located in a Gothic Revival building complete with gargoyles in Clinton Hill. The L-shaped school was meant to accommodate the growing population of students for the seminary and along with the later Cathedral College of 1968 in Douglaston, represented the Brooklyn Diocese’s continued efforts to rapidly expand its facilities. However unlike the later Cathedral College, Cathedra Prep is a much more traditional take in terms of its design aesthetics. By this time, the firm of Beatty & Berlenbach was dwindling down, having had their heyday earlier in the century. The materials here are red brick, limestone, and granite and the details are restrained with only window surrounds and some limestone and granite framing. Overall a much more traditional look that speaks more to the 1950s than 60s.