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University Settlement Society of New York
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University Settlement Society of New York
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| Location: | 184 Eldridge St., New York, New York |
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| Architect: | Howells & Stokes |
| Architectural style: | Classical Revival |
| Governing body: | Private |
| NRHP Reference#: |
86002515 [1] |
| Added to NRHP: | September 11, 1986 |
University Settlement Society of New York is located at 184 Eldridge Street (corner of Rivington and Eldridge streets) on New York's Lower East Side. It provides myriad services for the mostly immigrant population of the neighborhood and has since 1886, when it was established as the first settlement house in the United States.
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University Settlement was found by Stanton Coit in 1886 as The Neighborhood Guild.
Historically the settlement house, much like other settlement houses like Hull House in Chicago and the Henry Street Settlement (also on the Lower East Side), served as a homes for hundreds of thousands of immigrants who arrived in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th century. They provided courses for new immigrants on everything from politics to the English language to basketball. The University Settlement House also included a library, kindergarten and bath house. These settlements were also loci of Progressive reform.
When founded, the resident workers at the University Settlement were all male and recent graduates of colleges. Several of these men were writers in addition to settlement house workers and used their writing as social protest and a means of reform. Residents from 1900-1907 included: socialist writer William English Walling (a founder of the NAACP); Pulitzer Prize winner Ernest Poole; Howard Brubaker, who later became a columnist for The New Yorker; writer Arthur Bullard; journalist Hamilton Holt; and author Walter Weyl, a founding editor of The New Republic. Their interest in reform led to several articles and books on the housing and employment situation of workers on the Lower East Side, particularly women and children.
One issue that captured the imagination of many of the University Settlement writers was revolution in Russia. Many of the immigrants they met on the Lower East Side were Jews from the Russian empire who were typically severely repressed under Nicholas II of Russia. Through their interaction with these immigrants several of the residents became vocal advocates of reform in Russia. In 1905-1906, Poole, Walling and Bullard traveled to Russia to cover the abortive 1905 Revolution. They established contacts and helped establish a connection between radical writers in the United States and Russian revolutionaries.
During his presidency, Franklin D. Roosevelt described University Settlement as "a landmark in the social history of the nation."[2]
University Settlement continues to provide support services to residents of the Lower East Side, and now offers programs in 21 locations across Manhattan and Brooklyn. Programs serve New Yorkers of all ages and include child care, pre-school, housing assistance, mental health services, college and career preparation, crisis intervention, activities for seniors, arts events, English classes, after-school programs and summer camps.
Howard Brubaker (former columnist for The New Yorker)
Arthur Bullard (writer)
Nicholas Murray Butler (Nobel Peace Prize recipient)
Andrew Carnegie (industrialist and businessman)
George Gershwin (musician)
Ira Gershwin (musician)
Joseph Benson Gilder (former editor of The New York Times "Review of Books")
Samuel Halpert (artist)
Hamilton Holt (journalist)
Henry Holt (publisher)
Seth Low (former Mayor of New York City)
Gifford Pinchot (former Governor of Pennsylvania)
Ernest Poole (Pulitzer Prize winner)
Peter Riegert (actor)
Elihu Root (Nobel Peace Prize recipient)
Carl Schurz (former US Senator and Cabinet member)
Jacob Schiff (banker and philanthropist)
Barney Sedran (Basketball Hall of Fame)
Charles Bunstein Stover (former New York City Parks Commissioner)
William English Walling (NAACP founder)
Walter Weyl (author and founding editor of The New Republic)
Allen Davis, Spearheads for Reform: The Social Settlements & the Progressive Movement, 1890 to 1914 (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1985, reprint).
Mina Carson, Settlement Folk: Social Thought and the American Settlement Movement, 1885-1930 (The University of Chicago Press, 1990).
Jeffrey Scheuer, Legacy of Light: University Settlement's First Century (New York City: University Settlement, 1986).