The Wadleigh High School for Girls, which was established by the NYC Board of Education in 1897 and moved into its new building in Harlem in September 1902 It was the first public high school for girls in New York City. At the time, public secondary education for girls was considered highly novel and perhaps a bit scandalous. Newspapers considered it newsworthy enough to devote many stories to describing classroom scenes of girls receiving “higher” education. The building is now shared among several schools including the Wadleigh Secondary School for the Performing and Visual Arts, the Frederick Douglass Academy II, and Success Academy Harlem West.

Lydia Fowler Wadleigh was an American educator, principal of the first high school for girls in New York City, and "lady superintendent" of the precursor to Hunter College.