B-285_191-199+E+Broadway

**Description** **: David Sarnoff Building, Educational Alliance. 1889, remodeled 1969 ** Block and Lot : 285, 29
 * Address/ Location **: 191-199 East Broadway
 * Stories **: 6
 * Architect/ Address **: 1889: Brunner & Tyron, 1969: David Kenneth Specter

The Educational Alliance has served Downtown Manhattan since 1889.Originally a settlement house for East European Jews immigrating to New York City, the history of the Lower East Side and the history of The Educational Alliance are deeply intertwined. In addition to basic classes and programs on how to be a good American, The Alliance offered a creative outlet via The Educational Alliance Art School, recreational respite in the Rooftop Garden (serving 10,000 people per day in the summer of 1903), and the theater (Eddie Cantor made his stage debut there in 1905), and other escapes from cramped tenement life. In the 1940s, as the population of the Lower East Side changed, so did The Educational Alliance. We shifted from being volunteer run and we introduced social service programs overseen by trained professionals. In the 1960's, The Alliance pioneered Operation Street Corner, aimed at curbing teen age delinquency. We were one of the first organizations to offer Head Start for early childhood education. Recently, we addressed the needs of the aging population of the neighborhood by helping establish one of the first Naturally Occurring Retirement Community's, for which it provides services. Our history is one of embracing all of the new arrivals to the Lower East Side, while still maintaining special ties to our Jewish heritage.

http://www.edalliance.org/index.php?submenu=OurHistory&src=gendocs&ref=History&category=AboutUs

Named for David Sarnoff, who took classes at the Educational Alliance in the early 1900s before going on to found NBC

(wikipedia)