Right：P.S. 23 Façade. Photograph taken by Emile Bocian. Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) Collection 左图：Carbone老师的第23公立小学6年级课堂，Richard Wong捐赠，美国华人博物馆（MOCA）馆藏；右图：第23公立
小学正面，包信拍摄，美国华人博物馆（MOCA）馆藏
In 1891, new Superintendent of School Buildings Charles B.J. Snyder took on the task of revamping Manhattan’s entire school system. In his thirty-one years as superintendent, Snyder designed over 700 school buildings, the first being Public School 23 on Mulberry Street in New York’s Chinatown in 1891. The architecture was not only unconventional in style, but marked two brand new innovations：fire-proof construction and a basement auditorium that could act as a community space.
With its Lower East Side location, students from numerous immigrant backgrounds and even generations studied at P.S. 23：in 1905, the New-York Tribune called it “the school of twenty-nine nationalities.” In 1906, the flourishing P.S. 23 was the first school visited by a cohort of 500 teachers sent by Britain’s head of education to study the American school system. But by the 1970s, the middle class began leaving the neighborhood – with not enough children in attendance as many moved to P.S. 124 at the newly constructed Confucius Plaza.
P.S. 23 was shut down in the 1970s along with many other schools in poorer communities citywide. In 1984, MOCA (then the New York Chinatown History Project) moved into the second floor of the building and would host reunions for former P.S. 23 students and teachers in 1988 and 2003. The site at 70 Mulberry Street currently hosts the museum’s Research and Collections Center.
1891年，新上任的校园建筑负责人查尔斯·施奈德（Charles B.J. Snyder）承担起了改造曼哈顿整个学校系统的任务。在他担任负责人的31年间，施奈德设计了700多座校舍，其中第一座便是1891年在纽约华埠茂比利 街修建的第23公立小学。该建筑不仅在建筑风格上标新立异，而且还有标志性的两大创新：防火装置和可作为社区活动空间的地下室礼堂。
由于第23公立小学地处下东区，各种移民背景的学生甚至好几代人都曾在这里上过学：1905年《纽约论坛报》称它为“29国学校”。1906年，英国教育部长派出一个500名教师团，来参观学习美国的学校系统，繁极一时的第23公立小学成为了他们第一个到访的学校。但是到了20世纪70年代，中产阶级开始离开这个社区----导致了没有足够的孩子来上学，许多人都转去了位于新建的孔子大厦的第124公立小学。
和其他许多位于纽约市贫困社区的学校一样，第23公立小学在20世纪70年代被关闭。1984年，MOCA（当时的纽约唐人街历史项目）搬进了这栋大楼的二楼，并分别在1988年和2003年为之前的第23公立小学的学生和老师们举办了聚会。如今，这个位于茂比利街70号的馆址成为了MOCA的馆藏研究中心。
Countdown to the TCS NYC Marathon on November 3, 2019: 216 Days.
2019年是美国第一条横贯大陆铁路建成150周年，为了纪念第一批华人来美建设这条铁路所做出的巨大贡献， MOCA将其2019 TCS NYC Marathon的活动命名为 MOCA Spike 150 – Running Forward With Our Stories！ 鼓励大家通过马拉松公益跑，全国线上接力，以及一天一个故事的方式讲述150个华人的历史故事，敬请大家持续关注， 讲出华人自己的故事，回顾过去，立足现在，展望未来，共同书写美国历史，使之更加充实完整。