The Norman Thomas High School for Business and Commercial Education was a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

(closed in June 2014) in the Murray Hill neighborhood of

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

under the

New York City Department of Education The New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) is the department of the government of New York City that manages the city's public school system. The City School District of the City of New York (or the New York City Public Schools) is t ...

. Formerly known as Central Commercial High School (CCHS), and before that, the Central School of Business and Arts, its former location was on 42nd Street in a structure constructed with a 20-story office building in the

air rights Air rights are the property interest in the "space" above the earth's surface. Generally speaking, owning, or renting, land or a building includes the right to use and build in the space above the land without interference by others. This legal ...

above it. It was renamed after

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

minister and

Socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

activist

Norman Thomas Norman Mattoon Thomas (November 20, 1884 – December 19, 1968) was an American Presbyterian minister who achieved fame as a socialist, pacifist, and six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America. Early years Thomas was the ...

and moved to occupy the first nine floors of 3 Park Avenue, a 42-story

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ris ...

on East 33rd Street at

Park Avenue Park Avenue is a wide New York City boulevard which carries north and southbound traffic in the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. For most of the road's length in Manhattan, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the west and Lexington Avenu ...

in 1975. The high school was originally designed to train students for

secretarial A secretary, administrative professional, administrative assistant, executive assistant, administrative officer, administrative support specialist, clerk, military assistant, management assistant, office secretary, or personal assistant is a wh ...

and commercial occupations such as

accounting Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the measurement, processing, and communication of financial and non financial information about economic entities such as businesses and corporations. Accounting, which has been called the "languag ...

bookkeeping Bookkeeping is the recording of financial transactions, and is part of the process of accounting in business and other organizations. It involves preparing source documents for all transactions, operations, and other events of a business. Tr ...

merchandising Merchandising is any practice which contributes to the sale of products to a retail consumer. At a retail in-store level, merchandising refers to displaying products that are for sale in a creative way that entices customers to purchase more i ...

and

salesmanship Sales are activities related to selling or the number of goods sold in a given targeted time period. The delivery of a service for a cost is also considered a sale. The seller, or the provider of the goods or services, completes a sale in r ...

, clerical skills,

stenography Shorthand is an abbreviated symbolic writing method that increases speed and brevity of writing as compared to longhand, a more common method of writing a language. The process of writing in shorthand is called stenography, from the Greek ''ste ...

and

typing Typing is the process of writing or inputting text by pressing keys on a typewriter, computer keyboard, mobile phone or calculator. It can be distinguished from other means of text input, such as handwriting and speech recognition. Text can b ...

. As of 1940, every senior at Central Commercial High School was required to complete four weeks of work in an office during the last semester. In later years, this expanded to include such topics as

data processing Data processing is the collection and manipulation of digital data to produce meaningful information. Data processing is a form of ''information processing'', which is the modification (processing) of information in any manner detectable by an ...

and physical distribution

Notable alumni

* Barbara Alston, (1943–2018), a lead singer for the girl group

the Crystals The Crystals are an American vocal group that originated in New York City. Considered one of the defining acts of the girl group era in the first half of the 1960s, their 1961–1964 chart hits – including " There's No Other (Like My Baby)", ...

attended briefly before transferring to William H. Maxwell Vocational School. *

Kool Moe Dee Mohandas Dewese (born August 8, 1962), better known by his stage name Kool Moe Dee, is an American rapper, writer and actor. Considered one of the forerunners of the new jack swing sound in hip hop, he gained fame in the 1980s as a member of one ...

, (b 1962) American rapper, writer and actor, considered one of the forerunners of the new jack swing sound in hip hop * Luis Flores, (b 1981) Dominican professional basketball player and is top scorer in the Israel Basketball Premier League *

Aurelia Greene Aurelia Greene (October 26, 1934 – May 8, 2021) represented District 77 in the New York State Assembly, which comprises the Highbridge, Morrisania, and Morris Heights sections of The Bronx. She had been representing her district since 1982. ...

, (1934–2021) represented District 77 in the New York State Assembly, *

Special K Special K is an American brand of breakfast cereal and meal bars manufactured by Kellogg's. The cereal was introduced to the United States in 1955. It is made primarily from grains such as lightly toasted rice, wheat and barley. Special K used ...

, (b 1963) American old-school hip hop emcee from the Bronx. *

John Kerwin ''The John Kerwin Show'' was an American monthly talk show filmed in Los Angeles, California. The show was broadcast on JLTV, and featured on YouTube. History The John Kerwin Show was originally formatted as a late-night talk show. Beginning in ...

, talk show host * Armelia McQueen, (1952–2020) American actress best known for her roles in the Broadway musical ''Ain't Misbehavin and the film ''Ghost'' (1990) *

Louise Meriwether Louise Meriwether (born May 8, 1923) is an American novelist, essayist, journalist and activist, as well as a writer of biographies of historically important African Americans for children. She is best known for her first novel, '' Daddy Was a Nu ...

, (b 1923) American novelist, essayist, journalist and activist *

Tito Puente Ernest Anthony Puente Jr. (April 20, 1923 – June 1, 2000), commonly known as Tito Puente, was an American musician, songwriter, bandleader, and record producer of Puerto Rican descent. He is best known for dance-oriented mambo and Latin jazz c ...

, (1923–2000)

Latin jazz Latin jazz is a genre of jazz with Latin American rhythms. The two main categories are Afro-Cuban jazz, rhythmically based on Cuban popular dance music, with a rhythm section employing ostinato patterns or a clave, and Afro-Brazilian jazz, whic ...

and

salsa music Salsa music is a style of Latin American music. Because most of the basic musical components predate the labeling of salsa, there have been many controversies regarding its origin. Most songs considered as salsa are primarily based on son montun ...

ian and

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

Loza, Steven Joseph. ''Tito Puente and the Making of Latin Music'' Champaign, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1999; p. 1. * Khadimou Rassoul Cheikh Fall, better known as

Sheck Wes Khadimou Rassoul Cheikh Fall (born September 10, 1998), known professionally as Sheck Wes, is an American rapper. He is best known for his 2017 song "Mo Bamba", which became popular in 2018. Wes is jointly signed to Travis Scott's Cactus Jac ...

, American rapper, singer, songwriter, model, and professional basketball player for

Paris Basketball Paris Basketball is a French professional basketball club based in Paris. The club currently plays in the LNB Pro A, the first division of basketball in France, and the EuroCup. The club was founded in 2018 by David Kahn and Eric Schwartz. Th ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Norman High School Public high schools in Manhattan Park Avenue Kips Bay, Manhattan