Henry Street Settlement

Assistant Editor-In-Chief: Michelle Lew

Overview
Henry Street Settlement was one of the first settlement homes founded in the United States. It provided assistance services, particularly health care services, for new immigrants and the poor. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1989, and continues to provide support services to residents of New York City's Lower East Side.

The Henry Street Settlement was founded in 1895 by nurses Lillian Wald and Mary Maud Brewster at 265 Henry Street (Manhattan) in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States.

History
Lillian Wald, a nursing student at Women's Medical College in New York City, was asked to develop programs to help the poor. She went to the Lower East Side, which she described as “a vast crowded area, a foreign city within our own,”. Two years later, she founded the Henry Street Settlement in order to provide better nursing care and other aid to the poor and immigrants.

In 1915, the Neighborhood Playhouse was created nearby.

The Settlement was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1989.

In 2007, it was among over 530 New York City arts and social service institutions to receive part of a $30 million grant from the Carnegie Corporation, which was made possible through a donation by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Architecture
Wald established the Henry Street Settlement in a federal-era town house. Several more such houses were subsequently purchased and maintained as part of the Settlement. This had the consequence of preserving part of the 1820s streetscape amid what later became a crowded tenement district. The block of Henry Street between Montgomery and [[Grand Street (Manhattan)
 * Grand]], which also includes the handsome, fieldstone Georgian-Gothic All Saint's Episcopal Church gives a good impression of uptown Manhattan as it would have looked in the 1820s and 1830s.

Legacy
The Settlement continues to provide support services to residents of the Lower East Side, and offers programs in 11 facilities including the Abrons Arts Center. Programs include arts classes for children and adults, shelter services, health services, senior services, a workforce development center, day care centers, and after school and summer youth programs.

Clients
The Settlement had many clients who went on to become successful in their fields. Among these was Aaron Rabinowitz, noted New York City commercial real estate practitioner.