Henry Street Settlement

Henry Street Settlement and Neighborhood Playhouse
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
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°N 73.9852861°W / 40.7138833; -73.9852861
Built/Founded:	1827[1]
Architectural style(s):	Federal architecture and Greek Revival
Added to NRHP:	September 13, 1974[2]
Designated NHL:	May 30, 1974[3]
NRHP Reference#:	74001272[4]

Henry Street Settlement was one of the first settlement homes founded in the United States. It provided assistance services, particularly health care services, for new immigrants and the poor. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1989, and continues to provide support services to residents of New York City's Lower East Side.

The Henry Street Settlement was founded in 1893 by nurses Lillian Wald and several of her classmates at 265 Henry Street in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States.

History

Lillian Wald, was a student in the New York Hospital School for Nurses, Class of 1892, in New York City. One day she was approached by a child on the Lower East Side to "help her sick mother." Ms. Wald accompanied the child to a tenement dwelling where she found the mother too weak to stand, having recently delivered a newborn baby. As Ms. Wald bathed and fed her, she kissed her hand in gratitude. Lillian Wald said she knew that day that she would dedicate her career to caring for the impoverished sick and became a spokesperson for viewing health and illness inseparable from socioeconomic conditions. She described the Lower East Side as “a vast crowded area, a foreign city within our own,” .^[5] Two years later, she founded the Henry Street Settlement in order to provide nursing care and other aid to the poor and immigrants.

In 1915, the Neighborhood Playhouse was created nearby.

The Settlement was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1989.^[3][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]

Architecture

Wald established the Henry Street Settlement in a federal-era town house. Several more such houses were subsequently purchased and maintained as part of the Settlement. This had the consequence of preserving part of the 1820s 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 gives a good impression of uptown Manhattan as it would have looked in the 1820s and 1830s.

Legacy

The Settlement continues to provide support 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.

Clients

The Settlement had many clients who went on to become successful in their fields. Among these was Aaron Rabinowitz, noted New York City commercial real estate practitioner.

References

External links

• Official Site

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