East Boston’s Lost Schools: The Tappen School

Location: Lexington Street, the current site of the O'Donnell playground. 

Built in 1846, the original Tappan Primary School was a three-room wooden structure on a 4, 025 square foot lot. To accommodate an increasing student population, a 5,000 square foot lot, adjacent to the original building, was purchased by the City of Boston, to build a larger schoolhouse. Excavation for the 11,500 square foot building, began in July of 1873, and construction was completed in late 1873.  The new Tappan Street Primary School opened its doors to students in 1874.

The two-story schoolhouse consisted of a middle front entrance leading to a large hall, with front and back staircases, eight classrooms, each fitted with a teacher area, cloakroom, and a basement large enough to house the fuel room and three student playrooms.

The Tappan School was closed in the early 1940s and demolished in 1947.