Skyscraper Settlement

The book traces how Christodora House has functioned, from its origins as a 19th-century settlement house to the forms it takes today. Its workers improved the lives of thousands of people even when money was scarce, through hardships that included the 1918 influenza epidemic, repeated economic slumps, and two world wars. Many settlement houses from that era still stand in the neighborhoods where they began, where they take on present-day problems and speak up for local residents.

Christodora House was founded in 1897 as "The Young Women's Settlement" and became an important presence for immigrants and other residents of Manhattan's Lower East Side. Over more than five decades, its staff and volunteers offered classes, clubs, recreational activities, and medical and dental clinics to thousands of New Yorkers. The institution then kept running programs from public housing and other locations for more than twenty years.

The building at 143 Avenue B, now converted into condominiums, has had a turbulent past since 1948. It still stands, rising above the tenement blocks of the East Village.

Today Christodora Inc. operates as a nonprofit foundation with offices in Midtown Manhattan. Its staff works with underserved New Yorkers, including students in the public school system, continuing a long record of service to the city and the country.