B-288_265+Henry+Street

Block288

Landmarks

B-288_263 Henry Street

B-288_267 Henry StreetB-336_464 GRAND STREET

Henry Street Settlement

[|SOCIAL WELFARE HISTORY: HENRY STREET SETTLEMENT]

LILIAN D. WALD PAPERS AT NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY: []

NPS NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK: []










 * BLOCK || 288 ||
 * LOT || 79 ||
 * NB || BUILT 1827, RESTORED 1996 ||
 * USE || HENRY STREET SETTLEMENT ||
 * ORIGINAL USE || RESIDENTIAL ||
 * CURRENT USE || INSTITUTIONAL, HENRY STREET SETTLEMENT ||
 * NUMBER OF STORIES || 3 PLUS BASEMENT ||
 * FAÇADE MATERIALS || BRICK, WOOD ||
 * FOUNDATION MATERIAL || STONE ||
 * STYLE || FEDERAL ||
 * FIREPROOF || NO ||
 * NUMBER OF UNITS || 3 ||
 * ELEVATOR || NO ||
 * NUMBER OF ELEVATORS || x ||
 * DATE OF INSTALLATION || x ||
 * PARKING GARAGE || NO ||
 * DESCRIPTION || x ||
 * DATE OF INSTALLATION || x ||
 * NUMBER OF PARKING SPACES || x ||
 * LOT SIZE || 48' X 89.33' ||
 * BUILDING SIZE || 9573 SQUARE FEET ||
 * BUILDING HEIGHT || ? ||
 * RELATIONSHIP TO LOT LINE || UP TO ||
 * ARCHITECT NAME + ADDRESS || RESTORATION ARCHITECT: J. LAWRENCE JONES ASSOCIATES ||
 * BUILDER NAME + ADDRESS || UNKOWN ||
 * OWNER/DEVELOPER NAME + ADDRESS ACQUIRED BY HENRY STREET SETTLEMENT 1895 BY JACOB H. SCHIFF ||

FROM HENRY STREET SETTLEMENT WEBSITE:

The Settlement traces its beginnings to this period when, in 1893, a young nurse named Lillian Wald was called upon to visit an ill woman in her Lower East Side tenement. The squalid conditions she encountered there made a profound impression on her, and within the space of the visit she forged a commitment to serve the Lower East Side and its immigrant population. She established a non-sectarian community nursing service and turned to Mrs. Solomon (Betty) Loeb who, along with her son-in-law, banker and philanthropist Jacob Schiff were her initial backers. Schiff, who became Lillian Wald's lifelong friend and benefactor, purchased 265 Henry Street in 1895, and gave the young Wald and her nurses a house on Henry Street to serve as their headquarters. 265 Henry Street, built c. 1827, is a modest three-story Federal style building. Initially a two-story structure, the third level was added well before its purchase for Lillian Wald. The front façade, composed of red-orange brick with a parged and painted fieldstone base, still has much of its original ornamentation. The entrance, complete with the eight panel wood door framed by wooden ionic columns, lead glass sidelights and transom, is original to the building. The lintels and sills are original on all levels, and although early, all of the windows are replacements. Its neighbor to the west, 263 Henry Street, was also built c. 1827 and is a modified four-story Federal town house with a red-orange brick façade and a parged and painted fieldstone base. Like No. 265, it was originally a two-story house, and evidence indicates that the two top floors were added at the same time as the third story was added to No. 265. However, unlike No. 265, substantial changes were made to No. 263. The door was narrowed to the existing width, and the carved stone decorative window and door lintels were replaced in the late 1870s with both the then fashionable Neo-Greco Style and with traces of the oncoming Queen Anne Style of the 1880s. This can be seen in the lintel panel and sunburst over the front door, and the heavy cornice at the top. Both are of the same period. The structure still retains some fine Federal details such as the stair rails and the decorative cast iron pineapple finial found on the front entrance hand-hammered wrought iron newel post. During the period, the pineapple was a welcoming symbol of hospitality that the Settlement still extends to this day.

New York City Landmark, designated 1966

AIA GUIDE, pg. 91: Henry Street Settlement: "Federal and Greek Revival town houses now happily served (in altered form) by a distinguished private social agency founded by Lillian Wals (1867 - 1940), who is personally memorialized in the public housing bearing her name between East Houston and East 6th Streets on the river."

The Henry Street Settlement  records document the settlement's work as well as its concerns for social issues in New York City and nationally. While material in the collection dates from 1892 to 2003, the vast bulk of the records documents the Helen Hall years, 1933 to 1967.

The records include: agendas, minutes, correspondence, memoranda, newspaper clippings, financial records and budgets, brochures and newsletters, architectural drawings, maps, photographs, pamphlets, scores, scripts, and scrapbooks. These records describe Henry Street Settlement  's services and programs, including those related to: the arts, child care, camping and youth activities, health care, mental health, senior citizen activities, consumer education, juvenile delinquency, employment programs, adult education, and homelessness. The records also detail the settlement's internal administration. In addition, extensive correspondence files show the settlement's interactions with other persons and organizations, including various city, state, and federal government officials and agencies.

Series 1, Administration, documents the internal workings of the settlement as well as its history, organization, mission, policies, and clientele. The series also includes records from thesettlement's Community Studies Department. The correspondence, questionnaires, reports and related records document a range of social issues and reflect contemporary social work methodology and ideology. Series 2, Services and Programs, consists of the records of the settlement's many permanent programs, such as the arts department and camps; special short-term projects, such as the Pre-Delinquent Gang Project; regular programs that are no longer in operation; and proposals for programs that were never funded.

The Related Organizations series (Series 3) includes records of the organizations which were closely tied with Henry Street administratively or grew out of Henry Street programs. The Organizations, Subjects, and Correspondence series (Series 4) is an alphabetical arrangement of files documenting the people, organizations, and subject areas with which Henry Street was concerned. Series 5 contains scrapbooks that document primarily the Henry Street Music School and the Henry Street Visiting Nurse Service. The series also contains some information regarding the settlement in general. Series 6, Memorabilia and Ephemera, consists of individual items or groups of items donated to the Henry Street Settlement  by supporters, former staff, and alumni. The materials document people, events, and programs at the settlement. Series 7 contains grant proposals, applications and reports from the Henry Street Settlement Development Office. These are a rich source of information on a wide range of settlement programs, in particular arts, youth activities, and homeless services. The Henry Street Oral History project records (Series 8) consist of tapes, transcripts or partial summaries, interviewers' reports and conclusions, and release forms. The interviews of current and former settlement staff, program participants, neighborhood residents, and settlement benefactors document people and programs at Henry Street as well as life on New York City's Lower East Side.

Principal correspondents include Lillian D. Wald, Helen Hall, and Bertram M. Beck, all of whom served as the settlement's headworker or executive director. Other settlement employees who are documented in the records include Ralph and Ruth Tefferteller, Susan Jenkins Brown, Karl Hesley, Alwin Nikolais, Atkins Preston, and Leona Gold. The Henry Street Board of Directors included a variety of influential persons including: Herbert H. Lehman, Nicholas Kelley, Felix M. Warburg, James Felt, Mary Dublin Keyserling, A. Fairfield (Allston Fairfield) Dana, and Winslow Carlton. The researcher can also find information regarding other settlement figures, such as Helen M. Harris, Lillian W. (Lillian Wester) Robbins, and Mildred Gutwillig. Paul Underwood Kellogg, Robert Wagner, and Leonard Farbstein also appear.