8. The University Settlement House Provided Resources to Immigrants, 184 Eldridge Street
In 1886, a group of young urban reformers by the names of Stanton Coit, Charles B. Stover and Charles Schultz were looking for ways to tackle the daily hardships of life in the Lower East Side. The three men resolved to create an institution where immigrants could seek out assistance, advice and resources.
In a tenement basement on 146 Forsyth Street, the men established an organization called the Lily Pleasure Club, later renamed The University Settlement House. It offered everything from from English and vocational classes, the first Kindergarten in New York, public baths and recreational activities. Today, the University Settlement House is housed in a stately Beaux-Arts limestone and red brick building, designed in 1897 by architect and housing reformer, Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes (his first commission). Both Isaac and his wife Edith were instrumental in Progressive Era reform and today, you can visit their John Singer Sargent portrait at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.