After reading Stanley Kaplan’s autobiography “Test Pilot” I became interested in discovering the exact location of the first Stanley H. Kaplan Educational Center.
A few days of sleuthing through old phone books revealed that Kaplan opened his first educational center at 1701 Quentin Road in Brooklyn. I found the address in a Brooklyn phone directory from 1965:
There it is – “KAPLAN STANLEY H tutorg.” The scan is a bit blurry, but thankfully Stanley paid extra for some added visibility! The second address, 3931 Bedford Avenue, was Kaplan’s residence (where he also taught classes).
Here’s how Kaplan describes his decision to expand beyond his Bedford Avenue basement and open his first center:
In the biography, Kaplan refers to the center being on East Seventeenth street rather than being on Quentin Road. That’s technically correct, as the building was actually on the corner of Quentin Road and East Seventeenth. Here’s a look at the building in 2022, from Google Maps:
There is a small entrance just around the corner on the left side of the building. That’s likely the one used by Kaplan’s students. I don’t know precisely when Kaplan opened the center, but it was operating as early as 1961, when he placed this message in the yearbook of the Yeshiva University High School for Boys:
For what it is worth, the second Kaplan Educational center was opened one block away at 1675 East 16th Street in Brooklyn. Below is an advertisement placed in The Fordham Ram in 1969 which mentions that address. It is worth mentioning that before this time Kaplan “eschewed direct advertising” and “found print advertising distasteful” (source).
The East 16th street location is described in “Test Pilot” thusly:
The text also indicates that he opened this location in 1967. It is also referred to in “The Big Test” by Nicholas Lemann.
Here is a picture of the location in 2022. At some point, the center moved two doors down to the old bank building at 1602 Kings Highway and operated from there until at least 2015, according to some Yelp Reviews.
So there ya have it. The locations of the first two Stanley H. Kaplan Educational Centers.
As a special bonus, here’s a listing from a 1959 phone directory for Stanley Kaplan’s father, Julius Kaplan:
In “Test Pilot” Stanley Kaplan refers both to growing up on Avenue K and to his father’s work as a plumber. He also mentions that as a young man he taught his very first classes in the basement of that family home.