The Casita Maria Center for Arts and Education surrendered its old Simpson Street building to the School Construction Authority in 2007. On Friday, October 1, the SCA returned to Casita Maria a gorgeous facility.
Casita Maria, launched in East Harlem 75 years ago, will share its new 90,000 square foot digs with the Urban Assembly Bronx Studio School for Writers and Artists. The six-story building boasts science labs and art studios.
“Just fantastic,” Casita Maria board member Jacqueline Weld Drake exclaimed to a crowd of well-heeled well-wishers. “This building will allow us to increase the number of children we reach three-fold.”
Casita Maria served some 400 children before; in its new Simpson Street digs, Weld Drake expects Casita Maria to serve 1,400. The community center attracts children from all five boroughs. Its new building features a dance floor and a 400-seat theater, Weld Drake said.
Casita Maria left East Harlem for the Bronx in the 1950s and has been a beacon of hope in Longwood, Urban Assembly Bronx Studio principal David Vasquez said. Casita Maria helped Urban Assembly Bronx Studio students obtain mentors at City Hall and funded a student trip to Spain.
“Casita Maria is our big sister,” ninth grader Jennifer Veras of Bronx Park South said. “In our [new] science labs, there are sinks at every table.”
Urban Assembly Bronx Studio, originally a middle school, was crammed onto one floor at P.S. 198. Students and teachers are thrilled to share Simpson Street with Casita Maria. Urban Assembly Bronx Studio will add a tenth grade in 2010, an eleventh grade in 2011 and a twelfth grade in 2012.
“[The building] is a gift,” sixth grader English teacher Emily Lewis said.
Ninth grader Foster Alcantara of Longwood wants to become a baseball player and a physical therapist. Alcantara is proud that his will be the first class to graduate from the Urban Assembly Bronx Studio high school. Ninth grader Melonie Reyes of Longwood is a fan of the new science labs.
“It feels like we’re in college,” Reyes said.
Vasquez challenged Bronx pols present on October 1 to return.
“Our dream is for every student to not only attend college but to attend a college that you’d be proud to send your own child to,” Vasquez said.
Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. praised Casita Maria and reminisced about Longwood in its darker days, and the leaders who fought for its renaissance.
“We’re poor in our pockets but wealthy in our spirits,” Diaz Jr. said. “We don’t want a handout. We only want a fair share.”
Veras seemed pleased with her share on Simpson Street.
“Sometimes I don’t even want to go home,” she said.
