Virginia O’Hanlon’s Home To Be Turned Into School
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

A tribute is on the way for Virginia O’Hanlon more than a century after the precocious 8-year-old penned her timeless query, “Is there a Santa Claus?”
O’Hanlon’s 1897 letter to The New York Sun inspired what is widely considered the most famous newspaper editorial ever printed. “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus,” the Sun told O’Hanlon and children everywhere.
The Upper West Side building where O’Hanlon lived as a child will soon be home to a school – a fitting final chapter for a young girl who became a lifelong schoolteacher.
The Studio School, whose roughly 100 students range in age from 2 to 14, bought the building at 115 W. 95th Street two years ago. It also bought the adjacent building and is renovating the two into a permanent home that will double the space of the school, currently located across the street. Administrators say they plan to honor O’Hanlon with a commemorative plaque when the new facility opens in the fall.
O’Hanlon’s memory “keeps alive the innocence and wonderment of children,” the head of the Studio School, Janet Rotter, said. “In this day and age, we sorely need it.”
Ms. Rotter said the school received a letter several weeks ago from O’Hanlon’s granddaughter, Katherine Lee, who had read about the school’s plans for her grandmother’s former home. Ms. Lee, a California resident, expressed enthusiastic support for the project and enclosed a check for the school’s capital campaign, Ms. Rotter said. The school responded with an invitation for the family to attend the dedication. Administrators also plan to start an annual literary reading in O’Hanlon’s honor, Ms. Rotter said.
In September 1897, Virginia O’Hanlon wrote to the Sun that her “little friends say there is no Santa Claus.” She continued,” Papa says, ‘If you see it in The Sun it’s so.’ Please tell me the truth: Is there a Santa Claus?”
The paper responded on September 21 with an unsigned editorial. “Yes,Virginia, there is a Santa Claus,” the editorial said in part.
“He exists certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! How dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias.”
The editorial quickly took its place in Christmas lore and is reprinted annually in many newspapers and magazines.
Shortly after his death in 1906, the paper disclosed that Francis Pharcellus Church, a veteran editorial writer, had authored the famed reply to O’Hanlon. It was the first time in its history the Sun broke its policy of maintaining the anonymity of its editorials.
O’Hanlon later became Mrs. Laura Virginia O’Hanlon Douglas, and worked for decades as a teacher in the New York City schools.
She died in 1971, the year the Studio School opened.
A second connection to O’Hanlon presented itself recently. The school, currently renting its space from a synagogue, had long been looking all over the city for a permanent home, an aide to Ms. Rotter, Nadra Holmes, said. “Lo and behold, a building right across the street becomes available,” she said.
It was no. 115, the former home of Virginia O’Hanlon. With the help of a fund-raising drive, the school bought it. “The whole circle is really quite amazing,” Ms. Rotter said.