No one could have guessed in 1890, when Public School # 10 was newly constructed to the designs of prolific and talented Albany architect Albert Fuller, that the building would 109 years later become a touchstone of the preservation movement not only in Albany, but across the nation. 

The City of Albany purchased School 10 in the 1970s and moved its Human Resources Department to the building. By the late 1990s, however, Human Resources had moved elsewhere, and for several years the former School 10 sat underutilized. But the public rallied to rescue the building in 1999, when the Eckerd Drugstore chain proposed demolishing School 10 to build a free-standing, one-story, big-box drugstore with a drive-thru window and a large parking lot. The solid Romanesque former school was in great danger: though it was determined eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, it was not included in any of Albany’s local historic districts.

As part of its strategy to save School 10, Historic Albany Foundation created alternative plans illustrating that by making minor siting changes and eliminating two parking spaces, the site could accommodate both the proposed unmodified drug store and the historic school building. 

In June of 1999, the National Trust for Historic Preservation released its list of America’s Most Endangered Historic Places, and “The Corner of Main and Main”—prominent corners of downtown and urban neighborhoods throughout the United States—topped the list. Only blocks from the offices of Historic Albany Foundation and the Preservation League of New York State, School 10 was emblematic of the national phenomenon of suburban-style drugstores being imposed in urban and small town settings, often at the expense of historic buildings. Efforts to save Public School 10, therefore, received a great deal of coverage in both the local press and in national publications such as the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. Such publicity and constant prodding by local and statewide preservation organizations and the National Trust for Historic Preservation helped to encourage the largest drugstore companies to agree not to demolish buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

With School Ten saved but unused and its future still in some doubt, the Brighter Choice Foundation found a perfect use for the still vacant former school. Over the next year, the building was renovated and an addition constructed, respecting Albert Fuller’s 1890 design and materials, and on September 3, 2002, ninety kindergarten and first grade Brighter Choice Charter School students started classes at the former School 10.