Gompers Houses

Samuel Gompers Houses, also known as Gompers Houses, is a public housing development built and maintained by the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) on the Lower East Side of Manhattan on Pitt Street between Delancey and Stanton Streets. [1] The development is named after Samuel Gompers (1850–1924), an Englishman who immigrated to the United States in 1863, where he was a cigar maker, labor unionist, and workers' rights activist, who founded an organization that would eventually become the American Federation of Labor.[1][2] He was also the first president of the American Federation of Labor, serving from 1886 to 1924.[3]

Gompers Houses is composed of two 20-story buildings with 474 apartments that house approximately 1,116 people.[1] It is built on a 3.7 acres (15,000 m2) site bordered by Stanton Street to the north, Columbia Street to the east, Delancey Street to the south, and Pitt Street to the west.[1] Baruch Houses lie to the east.

Gompers Houses was completed April 30, 1964.[1] The development was designed by Lama, Proskauer, & Prober.[4] The relatively high cost of land for the Gompers Houses development, $13 per square foot, forced the New York City Housing Authority to build twenty story towers rather than the preferred six story buildings.[5] As with many of the housing projects built on the Lower East Side in the 1950s and 1960s, Gompers Houses is built in the "tower in the park" style.[6]

The development is consolidated with Rafael Hernandez Houses, Lower East Side I Infill, and Max Meltzer Tower.[1]

Minerva Montez is the Resident Association President for Gompers Houses.[7]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 "Gompers, Samuel Houses". NYCHA Housing Developments. New York: New York City Housing Authority. Retrieved 16 January 2010.
  2. ↑ "What's in a Name". About NYCHA. New York: New York City Housing Authority. Retrieved 16 January 2010.
  3. ↑ "The Samuel Gompers Papers". The Samuel Gompers Papers. University of Maryland at College Park. Retrieved 16 January 2010.
  4. ↑ "Lama, Proskauer, & Prober". Emporis.com. New York: Emporis Corporation. Retrieved 16 January 2010.
  5. ↑ Bloom, Nicholas Dagen (2008). Public housing that worked: New York in the twentieth century (illustrated ed.). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 154–157. ISBN 978-0-8122-4077-1. Retrieved 2010-01-16.
  6. ↑ Morrone, Francis (24 January 2008). "Pearls of Pitt Street". The Sun. New York: TWO SL LLC. Retrieved 16 January 2010.
  7. ↑ "Manhattan South District CCOP Office". Residents' Corner. New York: New York City Housing Authority. Retrieved 16 January 2010.

Coordinates: 40°43′05″N 73°58′55″W / 40.7181°N 73.9819°W