Historical Research Source.

The historical time line comes from the following source:

Frederick Douglass P.S. 139: A Citadel of Inspiration, It's Aura & Impact:
A Story of a Harlem School (Tapestry Press Ltd., 2005)
Author: Dr. Lionel E. McMurren

Lionel Edison McMurren, after serving in the New York City School System for 32 years, began researching material to write his book.
Especially noteworthy is the fact that Dr. McMurren, among several other alumni who after completing their college education, returned to Douglass to teach. He then became Dean, Career Guidance Advisor, Guidance Counselor, Elementary School Assistant Principal and then Junior High School Principal of the relocated Frederick Douglass Intermediate school 10 in 1969 for 13 years.

For those of you who attended Douglass 139, this book contains many memorable moments you can definitely identify with.
You can purchase the book by writing to:
L.E.M. Enterprises
4992 Trestle Court
Sarasota, FL. 34238
or call: 941-922-2710

You can review the book at the Schomburg Library and Research Center, 103 West 135th Street, Harlem NY
Call number: Sca 06-547 (Book Title: Frederick Douglass P.S. 139) Date/Vol. 2005

HISTORY

The Frederick Douglass Junior High School 139 or Public School 139, came into existence in, September of 1924, when marching students and staff members, led by, Robert S. Dixon, then a teacher of music later to become an assistant principal and principal assembled on Seventh Avenue and 140th Street. They marched around a night club which rested atop a winding hill at that location, and then proceeded east onto the block bounded by Seventh and Lenox Avenues to the site of Junior High School 139. Across the street from the entrance to the school stood elegant apartment houses with canopies extending from the building line to the curb, each tended by a uniformed doorman. Such was the scene in the 1920s on this Harlem street.

The school was relocated to 150th street and Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Blvd( Seventh Ave.) in 1969, became coed, and its name was changed to the Frederick Douglass Intermediate School 10 and subsequently to the Frederick Douglass Academy in 1991.

Description

Frederick Douglass Junior High School 139 Alumni Association composed of students who graduated from this school during it's existence in Harlem, New York.The school is now closed and we are attempting to reunite all of the surviving members of all of the graduating classes.