History
Between 1880 and 1923, during the height of the exodus from the Old World, immigrants from all over Europe moved into in crowded tenements on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Most were refugees who fled from pogroms, degrading poverty or the suppression of human rights.
Later, African-Americans and then Irish immigrants settled in the shadows of the two mighty bridges spanning the East River. They found work on the wharves loading and unloading bags of sugar, tea, coffee and spices that came from countries like the ones they left behind.
In 1898, two young East European idealists founded the Madison House of the Downtown Ethical society to fight some of the serious problems of the day. These youths were disciples of Dr. Felix Adler, founder of the Society for Ethical Culture. (1876)
The slums had rapidly become lethal chambers of disease. Tuberculosis, pneumonia, typhoid, and diphtheria spread rampantly among the immigrants claiming one entire block after another. One such block, an Italian and Sicilian enclave, was Hamilton Street.
In response to the epidemic, Lillian Wald of the Henry Street Settlement established a small "outpost" on Hamilton Street in 1902. Originally designed to serve public health needs of newly arrived Italian immigrants, Hamilton House soon began serving the youths of the community through a variety of programs.
The Lower East Side of New York, home to these humanitarian organizations, underwent a metamorphosis. As waves of immigrants shifted from European to Asian and Hispanic both Hamilton House and Madison House went through many changes in order to meet the needs of the community. A landmark change for both settlement houses occurred in 1954 when they combined to become Hamilton-Madison House.
Read more about this topic: Hamilton-Madison House
Famous quotes containing the word history:
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