History and architecture
The Elizabeth Home for Girls, on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, was constructed in 1891-2 as a refuge for homeless girls by the Children’s Aid Society . Designed by renowned architect Calvert Vaux in a picturesque, High Victorian Gothic style in brick and sandstone with a Dutch-influenced stepped gable, this building was one of approximately twelve that the architect created for this organization in the 1880s and 90s. It was the only lodging house designed for girls and one of only a few surviving CAS buildings.
The Children’s Aid Society was founded by Charles Loring Brace in 1853 to help New York’s poorest children improve their lives through education and the advantages of “home-like” living quarters. Brace believed that it was necessary to remove poor children from the bad influences of their environment, where they often had no one to care for them and no opportunities for education, in order to improve their lives and alleviate the crushing poverty of the city.
He was able to enlist many wealthy supporters and established a strong organization that continues to exist for the benefit of children and their families today. The Children’s Aid Society employed several approaches to achieve its goals, including sending orphan children to homes in the Midwest where they could enjoy the “benefits” of a home in a more rural setting, lodging houses for homeless children and industrial schools where they were trained for trades and employment.
The Children’s Aid Society ran the Elizabeth Home in this building until 1930 when it was sold to Benjamin Lust, a practitioner of a natural “water cure” for illnesses, who coined the term naturopathy. In 1946, the building was purchased by the Florence Crittendon League and used again as a residence for girls without other places to live, called Barrett House. In 1984, the building changed ownership again and was converted to co-op apartments.
Its picturesque façade is significant for its architecture and as an evocation of the working class history of the Lower East Side.
Sources and further reading
This history comes from the Landmarks app’s historical catalog. Names and building uses may reflect the period described.