Henry Street Settlement

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Henry Street Settlement and Neighborhood Playhouse
(U.S. National Historic Landmark)
Location: 263-267 Henry St and 466 Grand St, Manhattan, New York City, New York
Coordinates: 40°42′49.98″N 73°59′7.03″W / 40.7138833, -73.9852861Coordinates: 40°42′49.98″N 73°59′7.03″W / 40.7138833, -73.9852861
Built/Founded: 1827[1]
Architectural style(s): Federal architecture and Greek Revival
Designated as NHL: May 30, 1974 [2]
Added to NRHP: September 13, 1974 [3]
NRHP Reference#: 74001272[4]

Henry Street Settlement was founded in 1895 by nurses Lillian Wald and Mary Maud Brewster at 265 Henry Street in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. It was one of the nation's first settlement homes where new immigrants and the poor could find assistance, especially health care.

Contents

[edit] History

Lillian Wald, a student at Women's Medical College in New York, was trained as a nurse and asked to develop programs to help the poor. She went to the Lower East Side, which she described as “a vast crowded area, a foreign city within our own,” in 1893.[5] Two years later, she founded the Henry Street Settlement in order to provide better nursing care and other aid to the poor and immigrants.

In 1915, the Neighborhood Playhouse was created nearby.

It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1989.[2],[6],[7]

In 2007, it was among over 530 New York City arts and social service institutions to receive part of a $30 million grant from the Carnegie Corporation, which was made possible through a donation by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg.[8]

[edit] Architecture

The settlement was established in a federal-era town house, and subsequently purchased and maintained several more such houses which has had the presumably unintended consequence of preserving part of the late-federal (1820's)streetscape amid what later became a crowded tenement district. The block of Henry Street between Montgomery and Grand, which also includes the handsome, fieldstone Georgian-Gothic All Saint's Episcopal Church (1827) gives a good impression of uptown Manhattan as it would have looked in the 1820's and 30's.

[edit] Today

The Settlement continues to provide services to residents of the Lower East Side, and offers programs in 11 facilities including the Abrons Arts Center. Programs include arts classes for children and adults, shelter services, health services, senior services, a workforce development center, day care centers, and after school and summer youth programs.

[edit] References

  1. ^ "AIA Guide to New York City", 4th Edition, pg 91
  2. ^ a b Henry Street Settlement. National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service (2007-09-14).
  3. ^ National Register Information System. National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service (2007-01-23).
  4. ^ NL Writeup
  5. ^ Places Where Women Made History: Henry Street Settlement
  6. ^ ["Henry Street Settlement and Neighborhood Playhouse", December 28, 1973, by Carol Ann PohPDF (500 KiB) National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination]. National Park Service (1973-12-28).
  7. ^ [Henry Street Settlement and Neighborhood Playhouse--Accompanying 3 photos, exterior, from 1973.PDF (798 KiB) National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination]. National Park Service (1973-12-28).
  8. ^ New York Times: City Groups Get Bloomberg Gift of $20 Million. Retrieved on August 29, 2007

[edit] External links

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