- Date:
- 1893 - present
- Related People:
- Jean Ritchie
- Lillian D. Wald
- Florence Kelley
Henry Street Settlement
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What is the Henry Street Settlement?
The Henry Street Settlement, established in 1893 by Lillian D. Wald, began as a nursing service for immigrants on New York City's Lower East Side. Wald, a nurse and social worker, and her colleague Mary Brewster founded the Visiting Nurse Service in 1893 and moved into the neighborhood to be closer to the community.
Financed by Jacob Schiff, Wald acquired three buildings on Henry Street, hiring a staff of nurses. The settlement offered various services, including English classes, a savings bank, vocational training, and a library. It served as a community meeting place and played a role in social change, hosting meetings for the NAACP and supporting union activities and child labor laws. By 1940, the Henry Street Settlement had expanded to 20 branches with nearly 300 nurses. Today, the original buildings are a national historic landmark, marking them as Americaâs oldest settlement house.
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Where is the Henry Street Settlement located?
The Henry Street Settlement is a settlement house complex located in New York City. It was founded in 1893 by Lillian D. Wald as a nursing service for immigrants.
Initially, the settlement was in several properties on Henry Street. Later, it expanded throughout Manhattanâs Lower East Side. Jacob Schiff, a financier and philanthropist, donated three Federal-style row houses on Henry Street, which were converted for public use. Today, the three original Henry Street buildings are a National Historic Landmark and Americaâs oldest existing settlement house.
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Who founded the Henry Street Settlement, and when?
The Henry Street Settlement, a settlement house complex in New York City, was founded in 1893 by Lillian D. Wald as a nursing service for immigrants. Wald, an American nurse and social worker, moved to New York City to attend the New York Hospital School of Nursing. After earning a nursing degree, Wald and her colleague Mary Brewster founded the Visiting Nurse Service. To be closer to the community, they moved to the Lower East Side. With the help of Jacob Schiff, Wald acquired buildings on Henry Street and hired a staff of nurses. The settlement expanded to offer various services and became a community meeting place.
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Why was the Henry Street Settlement established?
The Henry Street Settlement was founded in 1893 by Lillian D. Wald as a nursing service for immigrants on Manhattan's Lower East Side. Wald and her colleague Mary Brewster started the Visiting Nurse Service in the same year and moved close to the community to provide quality services and promote social change.
Wald solicited aid from German Jewish leaders to finance the settlement. American financier and philanthropist Jacob Schiff donated three Federal-style row houses on Henry Street, which were converted into public use buildings. The settlement offered English classes, a savings bank, vocational training, public lectures, a library, and various clubs and activities.
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What types of services and programs does the Henry Street Settlement provide?
The Henry Street Settlement, established in 1893 by Lillian D. Wald, provides diverse services and programs to the Lower East Side community of New York City. These include:
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Nursing and Healthcare The settlement began as a visiting nurse service for immigrants and coined the term "public health nurse".
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Educational Programs English classes, vocational training, public lectures, and a library.
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Recreational Activities It has various clubs, activities, and one of New York Cityâs first playgrounds. The Henry Street Music School opened in 1927, and summer camps were established in 1908.
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Community Support A savings bank, a community meeting place, and facilities for union meetings. The settlement was also used to draft child labor laws and develop public housing.
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How has the Henry Street Settlement influenced social work and community services in the United States?
The Henry Street Settlement, established in 1893 by Lillian D. Wald, significantly shaped social work and community services in the U.S. It pioneered public health nursing, with Lillian Wald coining the term "public health nurse" to differentiate nurses working in impoverished areas.
The Settlement influenced the New York City Board of Education to pay the first public school nurse and initiated various community programs, including English classes, vocational training, and recreational activities. It also served as a meeting place for social change initiatives, such as the founding of the NAACP. By 1940, the Henry Street Settlement had expanded to 20 branches with nearly 300 nurses.
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Henry Street Settlement, settlement house complex in New York City, founded in 1893 by American nurse and social worker Lillian D. Wald as a nursing service for immigrants. Initially composed of several properties on Henry Street, the settlement later expanded throughout the Manhattanâs Lower East Side.
At age 22 Wald moved to New York City to attend the New York Hospital School of Nursing. In 1893, after she had earned a nursing degree, Wald and her friend and colleague Mary Brewster founded the Visiting Nurse Service. That same year Wald started teaching a hygiene and home nursing class on the Lower East Side and coined the term public health nurse to differentiate the role of nurses who work in poor neighbourhoods. To be close to the community they served, Wald and Brewster moved into an apartment just two blocks away from the future location of the settlement. By 1894 the pair had visited 125 tenement families. When Brewster fell ill, she decided to leave the Visiting Nurse Service.
Wald, to help finance the settlement she envisioned, solicited the aid of Lower East Side German Jewish community leaders, asking them, âHave you ever seen a starving child cry?â Her appeal came to the attention of the American financier and philanthropist Jacob Schiff, who donated three Federal-style row houses he owned on Henry Street and had them converted into buildings for public use. Wald hired a staff of six nurses and moved into one of those properties.
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By 1898 Henry Street Settlement had a staff of 11 full-time workers, and in 1902 it acquired three more Henry Street buildings. One of them included a gymnasium. The Henry Street Settlement offered English classes for new immigrants, established a savings bank, and provided vocational training, public lectures, a library, and various clubs and activities. Wald created one of New York Cityâs first playgrounds, in the settlement houseâs small backyard, and helped start the Outdoor Recreation League, which pushed to organize public playgrounds and parks.
Henry Street Settlement was designed as a community meeting place. Visitors were referred to simply as neighbours. Waldâs mission for the settlement house was not only to provide quality services but also to be involved in social change. In 1909 Wald offered the use of the Henry Street Settlement for the National Negro Conference, which became the founding meeting for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The settlementâs facilities were also used for union meetings (after the Triangle shirtwaist factory fire); to draft child labour laws; to establish Mobilization for Youth, an urban reform program focused on poverty and juvenile delinquency; and to help develop public housing, a government program providing affordable rental apartments to low-income, disabled, and elderly individuals.
Henry Street Settlement influenced the New York City Board of Education in 1902 to pay the salary of Lina L. Rogers, the first public school nurse. The New York City Board of Education and the New York City Board of Health subsequently started their own program to include 12 school nurses on the public payrollâthe first such service in the world. Wald lobbied for free lunches for all children in the public school system and helped move the Board of Education to create the first Department of Special Education. By 1906 the Henry Street Settlement had a team of 27 nurses aiding the Lower East Side; by 1914 that number had grown to more than 100.
In 1908 Henry Street Settlement opened two summer camps: Camp Henry for boys and Echo Hill Farm for girls. The sisters Irene and Alice Lewisohn built the Neighborhood Playhouse (later renamed the Harry De Jur Playhouse) in 1915. It was used for Henry Street Settlement art programs. The Henry Street Music School was opened in 1927.
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Following her retirement in 1930, Wald was replaced by Helen Hall, who had directed the University Settlement in Philadelphia. At the time of Waldâs death in 1940, nearly 300 nurses worked out of 20 branches of the Henry Street Settlement around New York City.
In 1989 the three original Henry Street buildings were designated a national historic landmark. They are Americaâs oldest existing settlement house.