The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place

The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place (2004) is a young adult novel by E. L. Konigsburg. It is a companion of Silent to the Bone,
a kind of prequel published four years later. Parent publisher Simon & Schuster recommends it for "Ages 10 up".

Margaret lives the rest of vacation with the Uncles. For 45 years they have constructed three towers of scrap metal, glass, and ceramic in their small back yard at 19 Schuyler Place, former company housing that the Tappan Glass Works long ago sold to its workers or to immigrants such as the Roses. The uncles have remained through Old Town's decline and recent gentrification, but the new home owning gentry have petitioned to have the towers demolished. Margaret spurs and leads a belated fight to save them after the Uncles have lost their last battle and given up hope. She plots initially with young Jake Kaplan. She personally recruits to the Cultural Preservation Committee. She does this through their mothers who still live in Epiphany, two adults who were friends of her own mother and neighbors of the towers as children, art museum director Peter Vanderwaal and Infinitel (a telephone company) attorney Loretta Bevilaqua. With Jake she must handle Phase One: Stop the demolition. On Loretta's advice she buys the towers for a dollar; on her own, she occupies them. Finally Jake must drag his mother and the Meadowlarks from Camp Talequa into the fray. Phases Two and Three and the epilogue comprise fewer than 20 pages. Occupation with mass media publicity bought time. Peter who knew the towers as masterpieces of outsider art mustered academic opinions in support. Loretta, who recognized their potential function, persuaded Infinitel to buy them. They were moved to a new hilltop park above campus and topped with cellular phone antennas. Margaret's triumph was bittersweet: she anticipated sharing it with her returning parents but saw that their love had ended and her family would soon break up. Tower Hill became a suburban housing development.