Labor Temple

223 2nd Avenue | also 242 East 14th Street, 248 East 14th Street, 250 East 14th Street | East Village | built 1925

Open on the map4 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

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.

  1. 1910

    Charles Stelzle starts a Sunday forum for workers in the old church on this site

    An earlier building on this site, the Fourteenth Street Church of 1851, stands unused after its trustees move to sell it. Reverend Charles Stelzle, a former machinist, starts a Sunday evening forum there, and its success leads to the founding of the Labor Temple with Stelzle as its first director. The Labor Temple offers educational services and clubs for workers and opens an employment bureau.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1925

    November

    A new Labor Temple building designed by Emery Roth is dedicated

    The $750,000 Italian Renaissance Revival building by architect Emery Roth replaces the old Fourteenth Street Church. It holds a ground-floor auditorium, a meeting room and office for labor groups, a basement gymnasium, a chapel, and a roof playground for neighborhood children. Norman Thomas, the Socialist candidate who had just lost the mayoral race, speaks in the auditorium the night after the dedication.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1926

    October 23

    Labor leader Eugene V. Debs lies in state at the Labor Temple

    Eugene V. Debs, who ran for president five times on the Socialist ticket, dies in Chicago in October, and his body is brought by train to New York. It lies in state at the Labor Temple from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m., according to the New York Times. The auditorium, open less than a year, has quickly become a favorite space for political and labor gatherings.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1927

    August 26

    The Socialist Labor Party holds a Sacco and Vanzetti memorial at the Labor Temple

    Three days after Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are executed, the Socialist Labor Party holds a memorial service for them at the Labor Temple. Police had banned public mourning, and the New York Times calls the gathering quiet and orderly. It ends with the singing of the 'International.' Earlier that month, a Sacco-Vanzetti emergency committee had held a conference in the building.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

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