University Settlement House
184 Eldridge Street | also 182 Eldridge Street | Lower East Side | built 1920
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1886
Coit, Stover, and Spahr found the first U.S. settlement house
Stanton Coit, Charles Bunstein Stover, and Charles Barzillai Spahr found University Settlement as the Neighborhood Guild in 1886, in a Forsyth Street basement. It is the first settlement house in the United States. The organization is now based at 184 Eldridge Street, at the corner of Rivington Street.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1898
Howells & Stokes design a new home for University Settlement
The Howells & Stokes building at 184 Eldridge Street opens in 1898 in a Neo-Federal style, with red brick in Flemish bond, cast-stone lintels, and a granite base. Soon afterward a sixth story is added. Apart from small changes to the facade detailing, the building looks much as it did originally.
Source: lespi-nyc.org
- 1900
Future reformers live and work at the Eldridge Street settlement
Residents of University Settlement between 1900 and 1907 include the socialist writer William English Walling, a founder of the NAACP. Others are the Pulitzer Prize winner Ernest Poole and Walter Weyl, one of the founding editors of The New Republic. Their interest in reform leads them to articles and books on housing and employment on the Lower East Side.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1986
The settlement's building joins the National Register of Historic Places
The University Settlement Society's home at 184 Eldridge Street is added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 11, 1986. The listing names Howells & Stokes as the architects.
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
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