Walk past the corner of Amsterdam Avenue and West 66th Street on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, and you’ll see it. A massive, rusted steel sculpture sits on the plaza, shouting the date 1973. It’s a memorial to Dr. King. Above it, the name Martin Luther King Jr. High School is still etched into the building’s facade.
But if you try to enroll a student in "Martin Luther King High School" today, you'll hit a wall.
The school, at least the way it used to exist, is gone. It was shut down in 2005. Honestly, the story of its rise and fall is basically a crash course in the last fifty years of New York City’s complicated relationship with public education. People still call it "MLK," but it’s actually a campus now—a "vertical mall" of six different high schools sharing one roof.
What Really Happened with the Original MLK High School?
The school opened its doors in 1975, and from the jump, things were kind of a mess. It took way longer to build than planned. By the time it opened, many middle-class families in the neighborhood had already bailed.
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It was designed by Frederick G. Frost and Associates, and the architecture is... unique. Think golden glass screens and a weird layout where the hallways are on the outside of the building. This means a lot of the classrooms are in the middle with no windows. It’s a bit claustrophobic, to be real.
For decades, the school struggled with a reputation for violence and low grades. Things hit a breaking point in 2002 when two students were shot inside the building on—of all days—Dr. King’s birthday.
The city decided enough was enough. Under the Bloomberg administration, they phased out the big, failing school and replaced it with smaller, specialized programs. By June 2005, the original Martin Luther King Jr. High School graduated its last class and officially closed its books.
The "Six Schools in One" Reality
Today, the building is known as the Martin Luther King Jr. Educational Campus. It’s home to six distinct schools. They share the gym, the cafeteria, and the library, but they operate totally independently.
If you're looking at this building for a student in 2026, you aren't looking at one school. You're looking at these:
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- Manhattan/Hunter College High School for Sciences: This is the big draw. It’s a partnership with Hunter College. Students spend their first three years at the MLK campus and then spend their entire senior year on the Hunter College campus on the Upper East Side.
- High School for Law, Advocacy, and Community Justice: Commonly just called "MLK Law." It’s exactly what it sounds like—heavy on social justice and legal studies.
- High School of Arts and Technology: They focus on things like coding and "virtual enterprise" where kids run fake businesses.
- Urban Assembly School for Media Studies: This one is for the future journalists and digital creators.
- High School for Arts, Imagination and Inquiry: Partnered with the Lincoln Center Institute, focusing on—you guessed it—the arts.
- Special Education Programs: The building also houses specialized tracks for students with different learning needs.
Why the Campus Still Dominates NYC Sports
Even though the academic school broke apart, the sports teams didn't. They still play under the name MLK Jr. Educational Campus.
And they are good.
The boys' soccer team is a literal powerhouse. We're talking 15+ city titles and a national ranking most years. If you’re a soccer player in NYC, this is one of the places you want to be. They also field teams in basketball, baseball, softball, and wrestling. When you see the "Knights" jersey on a court, they’re representing the whole building, not just one of the small schools.
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Is It Safe Now?
This is the question every parent asks. Look, the days of the 1990s are largely over. There are metal detectors at the entrance. That's just the reality of life in a large NYC campus building.
The "small school" model was specifically designed to make sure students didn't get lost in the shuffle. In a school of 400 kids (the size of many of these individual schools), the principal knows your name. That wasn't happening when there were thousands of kids in one giant, failing institution.
According to the most recent School Quality Guides, the vibe is generally positive. Most kids say they feel safe in the hallways, which is a massive 180 from where the school was twenty years ago.
Getting In: The 2026 Admissions Landscape
If you want to go to a school in the MLK building, you have to apply to the specific school, not the campus.
Manhattan/Hunter Science is the hardest to get into. It’s part of the Early College Initiative, and they look for strong math and science scores. The other schools are generally part of the standard NYC high school match system.
Actionable Steps for Parents and Students:
- Check the "School Quality Guide": Don't just look at the building name. Go to the NYC DOE website and search for the specific school codes (like 03M494 for Arts and Tech).
- Visit During an Open House: You need to see the "windowless classroom" situation for yourself. Some kids don't mind; others find it depressing.
- Research the Partners: Each school has a different "big brother" organization (like Hunter College or Lincoln Center). That partner dictates the internships and extra perks your kid will get.
- The Soccer Tryouts: If your kid is a soccer star, contact the Athletic Director for the campus early. The competition for the MLK Knights is fierce.
The Martin Luther King Jr. Educational Campus isn't the "failing school" people remember from the news in 2005. It's a complex, busy hub of six different missions, all trying to live up to the name on the front of the building in their own way.