UNIVERSITY SETTLEMENT


1886 - Present

Founded in 1886 in the LES and hailed as the first settlement house in the US. The purpose built settlement house on Eldridge street supported live-in volunteer workers and had meeting rooms for neighborhood organizations. Today there is a paid staff of over 500 with 30+locations. They offer an array of programs, including a creative center, adult literacy programs, swimming programs, youth programs, etc.

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This project is an expansion of the themes from the exhibit Activist Estates: A Radical History of Property in Loisaida (2019) authored and designed by the urban historian and architect Nandini Bagchee in partnership with curator Libertad Guerra.

AELES is an evolving resource that can grow to include supplemental layers of the case studies selected and the ongoing survival and futuring intents of these legacies.