About Us - History

Our Founding

Lenox Hill Neighborhood House was founded in 1894 by the Alumnae Association of Normal College (now known as Hunter College of the City University of New York) as a free kindergarten for the children of indigent immigrants. Since then, we have remained at the forefront of community advocacy and social and educational change. We have long been a center of community leadership in addressing such issues as affordable housing, poor working conditions, health care, hunger, early childhood education, poverty, unemployment, homelessness, juvenile delinquency, crime prevention and long-term care for older adults.

A History of Innovation

Community’s First Free Kindergarten (1894)
Mayor’s Committee on Aliens asks us to teach English (1917)
Headquarters for the League of Women Voters (1919)
Building constructed as the largest settlement house in the world (1928)
Lunch served to 600 school children during depression (1930s)
Full-day childcare begins as war-time measure (1943)
Lenox Hill Friendship Club forms for elderly neighbors (1946)
Lenox Hill Housing Service established to provide relocation advice and aid to thousands facing eviction (1955)
NYC’s first Meals-on-Wheels program (1964)
Launch of one of three model preschool programs in NYC (1965)
Manhattan’s only Senior Center open 7 days a week (70th Street, 1975)
Nation’s first Neighborhood Watch (1978)
Homeless Outreach Project Formed (1985)
First new Manhattan Senior Center in 20 years (Saint Peter’s, 2001)
Project STAR Caregivers Program Launched (2001)
Creation of civil legal services program in multiservice, community-based organization (2004)
Caregivers Legal Support Center launched (2005)
East Side Case Management Consortium formed (2007)

What is a Settlement House?

The Settlement House movement of the late 19th Century offered food, shelter, basic and higher education by wealthy donors, the residents of the city, and scholars who volunteered their time. Settlement houses are characterized not by the services they provide but by their approach: that initiative to correct social problems should come from indigenous neighborhood leaders or organizations (http://www.socialworker.com/settleme.htm).

In 1886, the first Settlement House was founded on New York
City's Lower East Side. Over the next decade, Jane Addams founded Hull House in Chicago, and other civic leaders established settlement houses throughout New York City and across the nation, including Lenox Hill Neighborhood House in 1894.

The Settlement House movement was founded on the belief that students and people of wealth should "settle" in poverty-stricken neighborhoods both to provide services to help improve the daily quality of life, as well as to evaluate conditions and work for social reform.

For more information about Settlement Houses, click here.