Toynbee House
311 East Broadway | also 313 East Broadway | Lower East Side | built 1904
Open on the map3 entries
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.
- 1904
A Beaux Arts community center rises at 311-313 East Broadway
The five-story red brick and white stone building went up in 1904, with the date inscribed at the roofline. Inside were a library, a gym, club rooms and a bowling alley, along with an assembly hall seating 125 and a top-floor apartment for the janitor's family.
Source: Forgotten New York
- 1919
Toynbee House, an aid group for poor immigrants, takes over the building
Toynbee House, an organization offering educational, recreational and social services to poor immigrants, acquired the building in 1919. The group's initials, ATH, are carved above the front door.
Source: Forgotten New York
- 1941
The building becomes a mikvah, the last on the Lower East Side
The Jewish Association of Family Purity converted it into a ritual bath in 1941 and renovated it again in 1966 to meet modern requirements. Six concrete cisterns in the basement, each holding 1,000 gallons, supply rainwater for the tubs. As of 2015 it was the only mikvah left on the Lower East Side.
Source: Forgotten New York
Further reading
- TOYNBEE HOUSE, Lower East SideForgotten New York
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